BENGALURU: A mechanical failure occurred nearly 50-feet above the ground at BTM Layout on Sunday morning when the support leg of a 260-tonne launching girder deployed for constructing the Double Decker flyover of Bengaluru Metro’s RV Road-Bommasandra Line slipped and got distorted. There were no casualties or injuries as the operation was carried out by remote control.
The launching girder was being set up for laying spans between piers to form the bridge on the 19.15-km elevated line of Reach-5 of Metro Phase-II when the slippage occurred at 6.15 am at a spot, near the
Udipi Garden signal. When resting on a pier, one support leg of the girder slipped and ended up resting over the pier directly.
The line is being constructed for BMRCL by a joint venture concern between Hindustan Construction Company Limited and URC Construction Private Limited.
A senior Metro official told TNIE, “A total of 130 spans (structures connecting piers) are being laid along this stretch. We have completed 90 spans. The incident occurred when the span connecting piers 145 and
146 was completed. The preparatory work to set the launching girder between piers 146 and 147 was on when the supporting leg of the girder slipped.” The spans were being laid for both levels of the road-cum-rail-flyover, he added.
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) Managing Director Anjum Parwez said there were workers behind the girder and engineers at the ground level. “It was an accident and has happened for the
first time when laying a Metro elevated line. The girder slipped in front and so no one was injured. As it is operated by remote control, no one was close to it,” he said.
A total of three piers are required for the girder to rest, the MD said. “Since it had completed laying of the spans in one portion and was moving on to do it in the next portion, it was rested only on two piers and was moving forward when it slipped. It has been bent now and is being brought down by four cranes that can carry up to 1500 tonnes of load.”
Work will be temporarily stopped for a few days.
“There are three other launching girders working along the line. We will be completing work on the line using them. BMRCL will do a thorough re-check of the three girders before resuming construction work again,” Parwez said.
The Jayadeva Metro Interchange Station of this Reach-5 line will connect it with the Nagavara-Kalena Agrahara Line (Reach-6). The flyover will rise to 31 metres, making it the tallest such flyover in
South India.