Delhi Metro Accident - Information

There should be system for parallel safety management contract of a separate agency overlooking safety aspects vis-a-vis construction

Selection of subcontractors should be done carefully.Their safety records and datas should be collected.Wearing Personal Protective Equipment(PPE) should be mandatory.The lifting equipments used should be checked for its proper function and limiters.Unsafe equipments should not be allowedat site  

The cantilever part of the pier in question was propped! It is strange that train was supposed to run on "Jugad". The failure might have even occured on the welding of the prop. I wonder that if supporting a cantilever for anywhere else other than base is good idea. The bending moment will get transfer to bottom of the beam and thus the tension zone. Whereas the reinforcement is provided on the top. TAccording to my understanding the original portal design should have been resorted to. It is reported that the change was done due to request of local shop owners as their land was gettting acquired. Development lenght is also not reported to be sufficient.

Today's flash on morning TV news was that the material was not tested in certified/approved laboratories. Before that Mr Sridharan said in an interview that he himself inspected the crack (went up the ladder and spent 20 mins there) and was of view that the pier should be dismantled. but his engineers were convinced that the crack is not dangerous.

Another news item (http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/delhi_metro_mishap_what_went_wrong.php referred) says that a design of metal strut to prop the pier was submitted by Gammon India in April and was approved too. The reason why it was not implemented was that the design was not made by the DMRC approved designer, M/s Arch Consultants.

So there was red tapism also involved.

I agree with u Mr.Ghose,but this will increase the cost of project,kindly suggest.

 When Failure occured definitely a blame game starts and is the human tendency.No one admits their mistakes. We cannot blame the politicians for not choosing the right contractors. Bribes and corruption cannot be avoided in this field. May be it is in differnt modes. Instead of blaming and finding the fault with whom since there is a shear failure(Diagonal tension cracks)the detailed investigation may be conducted in other areas immediately and we have to take all sorts of remidial measures of strengthening the same.(dismantling more weaker areas if necessary) may be done. Recently i have seen in Park hotel which is being constructed at Hyderabad258 Tonnes steel girder placed on 1 mx1m comums spaced about 26m. Cracks are noticed after some time.Since we cannot replace it and fivefloors alreday constructed strengthening has been done with carbon rapping.Once such symptoms of failures noticed we shoud take immediate remidial measures so that we can avoid such mishaps.

N.S.Rao

CPWD

i think everything is preplanned from the collapse to the resignation of sreedharan.why this kind of accident are happening somehere around the budget and thats also not once but thrice wihin a week.metro project is going in delhi for last several yearsbut no such accidents of this inensity had occured even in old delhi which is more accident prone area as al of the metro lines are underground

im agree with abdul bari the main cause is politicians.where is rahul gandhi and his footmarches after the elections............in london

I agree with Basab in conceding that the failure of the DMRC bridge at supporting pier is because of diagonal tension. If it is the case of design failure, it should have occurred at all similar places of all the piers. Extensive investigation is important and urgent, besides the structural check for ensuring the consideration of the forces at that part of the pier beam junction. It can also be a execution mistake.

I agree with Basab in conceding that the failure of the DMRC bridge at supporting pier is because of diagonal tension. If it is the case of design failure, it should have occurred at all similar places of all the piers. Extensive investigation is important and urgent, besides the structural check for ensuring the consideration of the forces at that part of the pier beam junction. It can also be a execution mistake.

I agree with Pragya that the blame game will get us nowhere. Reacting to criticism that the DMRC said it had been following a flawed process of selecting contractors and they have sprung to self defence.  Metro authorities said the crane mishap was caused due to a mechanical fault and that heavier cranes would be used from now on. The safety checks  in construction should be made compulsory, stringent and there should be quality check on the materials and equipments used.In fact the construction experts should get their safety gear certified for completeness. For those who lost their lives, their kin would not seek comfort in the fact that those who were guilty would only play down the impact of the tragedy.