A safety engineer and a supervisor of a private construction firm were arrested, a day after a 23-year-old migrant worker was killed when sand caved in at a Metro Water drainage work site in Pallikaranai.
Police said Venkatakrishnan,(34), safety engineer, and Jyothi Niranjan,(23), site supervisor -- both attached to Hyderabad-based SEW-AIPPL -- were arrested for causing the death by negligence.
The firm was executing the Metro Water project at Vallal Pari Nagar I Street in Pallikaranai when the mishap took place on Tuesday.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the migrant labourers who were involved in the trenching works for the underground sewage (UGS) had been insisting the site engineers to install steel scaffolding plates to prevent the earth from caving in.
However, such warnings were reportedly ignored by the engineers and the contractors.
Rajesh, (25), a native of Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh, was buried alive when the trenching works were underway in the 20 feet pit.
Three others trapped in the accident were rescued with the help of the fire brigade.
Meanwhile, Rajesh’s uncle is on way to Chennai from Barabanki and is expected to arrive in on Thursday.
Pallikaranai Inspector Alagu said that they were waiting for the man’s relatives to turn up. “The autopsy was completed. We will hand over the body soon after their arrival,” he said.
The digging works were taken up to lay distribution mainlines for transporting the sewage from the area to a nearby pumping station. Following the mishap, the trenching works have been stopped.
On May 21, two migrant workers involved in digging underground sewage pits at JJ Nagar were exposed to poisonous gases and died.