MUMBAI: At least 20 persons were crushed to death and three were injured as a girder launcher collapsed during the construction of a viaduct for the Samruddhi Expressway in Thane, Maharashtra, on early Tuesday morning.
The girder launcher along with a segment launcher (crane), weighing 700 tonnes, came crashing down from a height of 35 metres, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) said.
The deceased included two engineers, said the MSRDC, the executing agency of the 600-km long expressway project that links Nagpur with Mumbai. Thane police registered an offence against two contractors for allegedly causing death by negligence.
It was a special-purpose “mobile gantry crane” used in bridge construction and to install precast box girders in highway construction projects that collapsed while being shifted between piers 15 and 16 of the viaduct as part of preparatory work for the next day, the MSRDC said, adding that the same launcher had successfully constructed 98 of the total 114 segments.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the loss of lives and announced ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin of each of the deceased and assistance of Rs 50,000 for the injured persons, while Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced assistance of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of the deceased. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said NDRF teams were engaged in relief and rescue work.