Sumana Das, Pune
On Thursday morning, at least one laborer succumbed to death and around eight others were injured after a crane collapsed at the high-speed rail construction site near Kambola village in Karjan Taluka of Vadodara district in Gujarat.
As per the Vadodara Rural Superintendent of Police, the crane broke off on the under-construction bridge, trapping the workers under it.
According to the officials, the construction site is a part of National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), a bullet train project connecting the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor. The incident took place on the civil work site of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor (MAHSR) on Mangrol-Kambola Patch.
Soon after the mishap occurred, police officers and locals rushed to the rescue. Minister of State for Railways Darshanaben Zardosh and local MLA Akshay Patel also visited the spot. With the help of the Vadodara Fire Department, the trapped workers were rescued. According to fire department officials, one of the workers died at the scene while he was trapped. The injured ones are currently undergoing treatment. Many surrounding shops were also damaged because of the crash.
The project was undertaken by the infrastructure giant, Larsen & Toubro (L&T). It passed a press release on July 21 stating that NHSRCL has given them the mandate to stretch the distance of 135.4 km under the MAHSR project, complementing the company’s Heavy Civil Infrastructure Business.
“The launching gantry was shifted on top of the girder transporter to the launching location, and while self-unloading from the girder transporter, the wheelbase of the front support (FS) got jammed and inclined, thereby disturbing a part of the launching gantry,” NHSRCL said in a statement to The Indian Express.
Additionally, the statement mentioned that one worker got trapped and died while checking the defective wheelbase, and the other workers who got trapped at that time were admitted to the hospital. However, with the severity of the accident, locals are assuming that the death toll might fluctuate and that there might be other workers who are still trapped in the debris.
According to the Indian Express, a statement presented by the NHSRCL pointed out that, post-completion of the C3 package, the girder launcher had reached a new location near Vadodara after stretching about 14 km, which will come under the new C4 package of the project, which was commenced on Thursday itself.
The undergoing MAHSR project stretches almost 508 km. The stretch will cover portions of Maharashtra, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and Gujarat, along with 12 stations on the route. After completion, the High-Speed Rail will operate at a speed of 320 km/h, covering the entire