In their preliminary investigation, IIT-Hyderabad professors – KVL Subramaniam and S Suriya Prakash – have found “improper design of the supporting structures” responsible for the January 10 reinforcement cage collapse incident in Bengaluru’s HBR Layout.
The Bengaluru police department constituted a team comprising members of the civil engineering department of IIT-Hyderabad to probe the collapse of the reinforcement cage that led to the death of a woman and her toddler son.
According to sources in the police department, the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) team was roped in to investigate the technical aspects of the incident, based on which the cops will initiate action against those responsible for the mishap. It has also been learnt that the quality of the supporting structures will be studied.
While the full report is yet to be submitted, the IIT-Hyderabad team has sought help from the police department on many technical aspects of the Metro work.
Bheemashankar Guled, DCP East, law and order, said: “The team has sought more details on the Metro work. The investigation is underway and a full report is yet to be submitted. The investigation has prima facie found that the supporting structures were not designed properly. Further, there will be a focus on the quality of materials used for the supporting structures.”
The Govind Pura police have registered a case under Sections 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others), 337 (Causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 304 (a) (Causing death by negligence), and 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against BMRCL (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited) site engineer and other workers of the organisation. The interrogation of suspects in connection to the incident is also underway, police officials said.
Meanwhile, IISc Bengaluru professor Chandra Kishen, who has been roped in by the BMRCL to independently investigate the cause of the incident, said a full report will be submitted to the BMRCL Saturday.
Speaking to indianexpress.com, Kishen said: “I have collected many documents related to the Metro work being carried out on the KR Puram-Hebbal stretch. I have been analyzing activities taking place at the site since October and whether all the standard practices were adhered to.”
BMRCL managing director Anjum Parvez said, “We will be changing our standard operating procedure of casting the reinforcement cage following the incident. We are contemplating switching to two-stage casting, for pillars that are above 12 meters. We have also stopped work on all reinforcement cages that are above 12 meters. Whereas work has been undertaken on reinforcement cages that are less than 12 meters in height.”