Saved by sheer good fortune

A bus of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) with over 50 passengers travelling between Bangalore and Dharmasthala had a narrow escape when a steel-and-concrete girder, estimated to weight about 450 tonnes, fell on the road near the APMC yard at Yeshwantpur.

The KSRTC bus had only just sped past this stretch of Tumkur Road beneath the corridor of the under-construction Namma Metro project in the first phase, fourth reach, between Yeshwantpur and Peenya.

Vasanth Rao, public relations officer of the Bangalore Metro, said that the girder was being placed on Thursday afternoon when the incident occurred. Two autos plying behind the bus also had a narrow escape as the huge boulder came crashing down ahead of them.

The fallen girder landed in the middle of the road. Rangaswamy, an employee of the East West College, said that a couple on a motorbike had a narrow escape as they were on the edge of the road. “Both husband and wife might have been crushed if they were riding in the middle of the road,” Rangaswamy said.

S Mahadeva, a member of the Kannada Sene, witnessed the incident. “The girder fell between the bus and the autos. It was a close shave for the bus passengers as well as the auto riders. It happened in the blink of an eye. The bus driver did not stop. The girder did not roll onto the service road. That might have caused a calamity, as the service road was crowded,” Mahadeva said.

The girder was about 15 metres long. Three such pre-fabricated girders, placed horizontally on the pillars, provide the width required for the metro coach. A labourer at the site said, “We don’t know how this happened. We’re lucky that no one was hurt.”
Appalled by the quality of civil engineering, local people took it upon themselves to question engineers. In the course of the questioning, one engineer casually remarked that the people ought not to get so worked up; after all, no one was injured.

Enraged, the mob beat up some engineers at the spot. “The police wanted to arrest engineers for negligence. Instead, they took me to the police station and detained me for about half an hour. This is what happens when we make noises to protect the interests of the public,” said Mahadeva.

The incident caused major diversion in traffic. Vehicles from CV Raman Road were diverted to either Chord Road or to a service road. BMRCL engineers later brought a crane and shifted the girder to the side of the road. Workers covered the broken beam with a plastic sheath.