BENGALURU: Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan criticised Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) for alleged continued disregard for safety protocols at its construction sites. This comes in the wake of Wednesday’s accident in which a girder meant for Metro work fell on an autorickshaw, killing the driver.
In a letter to the BMRCL MD, Mohan expressed concern over what he described as “gross negligence” and “administrative failure” by BMRCL officials and contractors appointed by the agency. The MP requested the personal intervention of the BMRCL MD and demanded that police complaints be lodged against contractors responsible for fatal incidents.
He said the latest mishap occurred owing to non-compliance with standard safety protocols. He also recalled an earlier case in which a woman and her young child lost their lives after a reinforcement cage collapsed at a Metro construction site. “Both incidents reflect a blatant non-adherence to basic safety norms at site,” the MP said.
The MP pointed to the repeated failure to implement safety protocols and argued that safety measures mandated under BMRCL contracts were not being enforced at sites. He said there is no supervision of vehicular movement, barricading is either missing or inadequate, and key structural elements remain unsecured or unmonitored.
He also raised serious doubts over the utilisation of safety funds, and said there was no transparency regarding how these funds were spent and no visible audits were being conducted to ensure proper utilisation.
“If such recklessness continues, further loss of life is inevitable — and BMRCL will be held morally, contractually, and legally liable,” the letter read. The MP called for a high-level independent safety audit of all ongoing metro works, suspension and blacklisting of contractors with a record of safety violations, and fixing accountability on engineers and officers responsible for lapses.