Two workers crushed to death after crane cable snaps
The heavy weight PSC Box girder, which fell while lifting and killed two workers engaged in Srinivasam Setu flyover construction in Tirupati on Wednesday night
Tirupati: Two workers engaged in the construction of Srinivasa Setu flyover were crushed to death after a huge 70 tonne PSC box girder fell on them as the cables of the crane suddenly snapped while lifting the concrete box for fixing it on the flyover, late Wednesday night.
The mishap occurred when the erection of roofing elements, technically called PSC Box girder segment, was going on (between Ramanuja circle and Subbalakshmi circle) using a 500 T capacity crane, wire rope of the crane was broken due to sudden mechanical failure leading to the death of two workers.
The deceased were identified as Avijit Ghosh (20) and Bhaddo Mandal (40) from West Bengal and Bihar respectively. The duo, who were to fix washers and bolts of Pre-Stressed Temporary Beam (PTBeam) of the box type girder, were caught under the huge concrete slab that fell on them after crane cable snapped. After three hours of much effort, the mangled bodies were retrieved and sent to SVRR hospital for postmortem.
Municipal Corporation Commissioner D Harita, also Tirupati Smart City Corporation Limited (TSCCL) CEO & MD, along with corporation senior officials reached the spot and saw the bodies were shifted to hospital.
TSCCL Executive Engineer, AFCONS project manager, team leaders and staff were engaged in the operation to retrieve the bodies while Tirupati East police led by CI Maheshwar Reddy rushed to the spot and joined in the operation.
The Commissioner announced Rs 5 lakh each, from TSCCL, as ex gratia to the families of the deceased workers. City MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy expressed grief over the workers’ death and said that he will strive to get suitable ex gratia from the government to the bereaved families.
It should be noted that the mishap occurred when the flyover works were about to be completed in a couple days. It may be noted here that works of three phases (total 5.4 km against 6.5 km flyover) of the Rs 650 crore flyover, a joint project of TTD and TSCCL, were already completed and under operation while the fourth and last phase was to be over for inauguration in August 2nd week. A case was registered in east police station.