1-8-2023 (MUMBAI) At least 17 workers were killed on Tuesday when a crane collapsed on an under-construction expressway in western India, according to disaster response officials. The crane toppled onto large concrete slabs during the night and debris fell onto labourers working on the Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra state. The National Disaster Response Force (NRDF) said 17 bodies had been recovered, and three injured people had been taken to hospital.
An NRDF video clip showed rescuers working through piles of mangled steel girders at the construction site in Thane, a suburb of Mumbai. The Samruddhi Expressway, which connects Mumbai with the city of Nagpur, is part of a large-scale road infrastructure project in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to inaugurate infrastructure projects in Maharashtra on Tuesday, expressed sorrow at the loss of lives and ordered compensation to be paid to the families of the dead and injured workers.
Accidents on large infrastructure construction sites are common in India. In October last year, 130 people died in Gujarat when a bridge collapsed soon after it was repaired. In 2016, the collapse of a flyover onto a busy street in Kolkata killed at least 26 people.
Officials say death toll from construction crane collapse in India’s Maharashtra State is likely to rise pic.twitter.com/E3ofR98p6F
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) August 1, 2023
