11 engineers named in Bengaluru Metro pillar collapse charge sheet

After around five months of the collapse of a metro pillar on the Hennur main road in Bengaluru which killed a woman and her child, the police on Thursday submitted a comprehensive charge sheet to the court against 11 engineers from both Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) and a private company.

The incident occurred on January 10 when Tejaswini (28), a software engineer by profession was travelling with her husband and two children to work when an under-construction pillar of the Bengaluru Metro fell on the motorcycle they were riding on. Tejaswini and her two and a half-year-old son were killed in the incident. Her husband and a one-year-old child, who were travelling on the motorcycle, however, escaped uninjured in the accident.

The police have compiled an exhaustive 1,100-page charge sheet. It highlights the critical role played by 11 engineers, hailing from both the BMRCL and a private construction company, Nagarjuna Construction company (NCC) involved in the project.

The charge sheet also cites a report by the IIT Hyderabad. The expert said that lack of adequate support and improper design of the supporting structures led to the collapse of the under-construction metro pier. “It’s the responsibility of the BMRCL. They should have asked why there was no additional support. But probably because these people have done it so many times all over Bengaluru, they were depending partly on their luck and partly on their expertise, instead of relying on what is in the engineering textbooks,” a senior police officer said.

HT reached out to BMRCL, but couldn’t get an immediate response.

Prof JM Chandra Kishen of the civil engineering department at IISc, who conducted the inquiry, and submitted the report to the BMRCL had also found that inadequate support structure for the tall reinforcement cage was the main reason behind the collapse of a metro pillar.

The Karnataka high court on January 13 took suo motu cognisance of the metro pillar collapse in Bengaluru in which a mother and her toddler son were killed. The high court raised concerns about “safety measures prescribed while undertaking such construction work” and whether such safety measures are “part of the tender document or contract agreement”. The HC further asked “If safety measures are not a part of the tender document or contract between the parties ...are there any attempts made to set up the measures by way of government order or notification”.