Man crushed to death during transportation of Metro girder

A 25-year-old man was crushed to death after a girder weighing about 100 tons, being transported to a Metro construction site, fell on him in the western suburb of Kandivali, the police said on Friday.

The incident took place in the early hours on the Western Express Highway, said senior inspector Raju Kasbe of Samta Nagar police station.

Arshad Shaikh, employee of the Metro contractor firm J Kumar, was driving a 'warning escorting vehicle' behind the trailer which was transporting the girder at a construction site of the Dahisar-to-DN Nagar Metro Line 2A.

According to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the implementing agency for Metro, the accident took place when the trailer got separated from the 'puller' vehicle in the front.

While two other men in Shaikh's vehicle escaped by jumping out in time, Shaikh was crushed to death, Kasbe said.

A case under IPC section 304 (A) (death by negligence) was registered against the driver of the trailer, he said.

MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar termed the incident as "unfortunate".

"This kind of haphazard work would not be tolerated. We hope all contractors will take utmost care in future," he said.