CHENNAI: A 45-year-old contract worker died following a cave-in while working underground for laying sewage pipeline for the Chennai Metro Rail project near Medavakkam in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The victim, identified as K Ravi from Salem district, was working for a sub-contractor for Phase II work between Medavakkam and Madipakkam. “The team was involved in moving the existing sewage pipelines at the Medavakkam main road at Ullagaram near Puzhuthivakkam.
The pipelines were moved and relaid a few metres away at a depth of 10 feet in order to allow soil testing in the centre of the road,” said a senior police officer. Around 1 am, Ravi entered the 10-feet pit without any protection and was involved in laying the pipe, when the soil caved-in.
Ravi got stuck under the sand and the other employees started removing the sand to bring him out, said a police officer. “About 20 minutes later, Ravi was rescued and rushed to a nearby private hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival,” said the officer. His body was sent to the Royapettah Government Hospital for postmortem examination.
Madipakkam Police registered a case under section 304-A (Causing death due to negligence) and arrested Govindaraj, sewer pipeline contractor, Bojan, the sub-contractor in-charge of supervising Ravi and Mohan, who was the utility engineer at the site. However, the trio were released on station bail on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Metro Rail spokesperson denied that sand caved-in and said Ravi died of a heart attack. Soon after Ravi died, the CMRL workers allegedly filled the pit with sand and completed the work.