Gammon India responsible for metro crane mishap: Panel

A probe panel looking into the crane mishap at a Delhi Metro site during debris clearance today held contractor Gammon India responsible for the "unusual" incident which it said was due to "mismanagement and lack of professionalism".

"We have received the report on the snapping of cranes in Zamrudpur. It holds contractor's mismanagement and non-professional approach as the reasons for the mishap," Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief E Sreedharan told reporters.

The DMRC has appointed former NALCO general manager BP Singh, an expert on cranes, to inquire into the July 13 mishaps in which a crane toppled over and the booms of two other cranes broke during site-clearing operations at Zamrudpur.

Sreedharan said Gammon India used four cranes at the same time, which was not the practice. "Two cranes should have been used instead of four. Once you use four and if one of them develops a snag, then everything goes wrong.

"The report also said that the clearance of girder from the site should have been done in two stages. There is a sheer error in judgement. Fortunately, only four cranes were lost
but it is a very major incident," he said.

Delhi Metro officials said the probe report on the July 11 accident, when an under-construction bridge collapsed in Zamrudpur killing six people, is likely to be submitted by tomorrow.

Sreedharan said the four cranes were brought from different Metro sites and did not belong to the same company. "There was no coordinated action. The crane operators
could not coordinate, they spoke different languages." 

He also lamented that there was no authority in the country checking the "health of such equipment". There is no authorised agency which certifies that a crane is safe, he
said. He also said the contractor should have deployed more experts on cranes at the site. "We do not have experts on cranes, though we have a team which looks into the safety aspect," he said.

He also said the DMRC has removed Rajan Kataria, a senior official in its design department, two days ago from the panel looking into the Zamrudpur accident. "We removed him from the panel as we did not want other members to be influenced by him in preparing the report if they find design deficiencies," he said.

Sreedharan also revealed that project director Vijay Anand was asked to go on leave, but decided to go for repatriation. He also rued the shortage of "good and big" contractors who can take up large projects. "There is an acute shortage of big contractors and skilled manpower," he said.