A 26-year-old worker working at a Bengaluru Metro construction site in the city’s Jayanagar area was killed after a cable pierced his head. According to a report, the incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday, when the worker, identified as Santosh Hansda, was engaged in cable stressing works on the Namma Metro’s Green Line at Jayanagar 9th Block. This is the fourth time this year that a metro construction worker has been killed.
Santosh Hansda and co-worker Ulisal Basky were assisting another worker Jeevan Marandi on a 30-ft tall metro pillar when a wedge plate fell onto the machine, after which a cable jutted out, pierced Hansda’s head and left him hanging by the cable. "The wedge plate fell and put pressure on the machine. This led to the accident and Santosh was hit on the head. He was hanging (in air) on safety and he was not responding," Ulisal told TNM.
The incident happened at 4.45 am on Wednesday, and Hansda was rushed to the hospital in an unconscious state, but was declared dead.
An FIR was registered at the Tilak Nagar police station based on a complaint filed by Ulisal. The police have registered a case of negligence against the cable-stressing machine operator and representatives of Utracon, the firm that was carrying out the works at the metro line. The FIR named Jeevan Marandi, who was working with Santosh; Suresh, who is an executive at Utracon company; and Veeramani and Navaneeda, who are both engineers.
This is not the first time this year that a worker has lost his life at Metro construction sites. In November, a 24-year-old construction worker was killed and two others were injured after an iron beam being dismantled fell on them at a metro station construction site in Electronic City on Thursday.
In September, a 24-year-construction worker hailing from Bihar, Dhananjay Kumar, died while on duty at the Jayanagar construction site of the metro after a beam that was being erected fell on him.
In March this year, another accident happened at the Pattanagere Metro station in the city. A worker who hailed from Andhra Pradesh, fell while he was doing chipping work for the escalator shaft at this elevated metro which is part of Metro Phase-II. Though the person was rushed to a hospital, he did not survive the fall from the concourse level.