Four months after fatal Metro pillar mishap, first public hearing on May 3,4

The Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety (CMRS) has initiated an investigation into the collapse of a Metro reinforcement structure that resulted in the deaths of a woman and her toddler son in HBR Layout on Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru, nearly four months ago.

In a notification published in newspapers on May 2, Anant Madhukar Chowdhary, CMRS (Southern Circle, Bengaluru), stated that a statutory hearing will be held at 10 am on May 3 and 4 at the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) head office in Shanti Nagar.

The CMRS, under the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, has requested people with information or evidence related to the incident to either appear in person on the designated days or write to the CMRS office in Bengaluru.

While a CMRS probe and public hearing following a Metro accident is standard procedure, it is unclear why the investigation was delayed for so long. Chowdhary took over as Commissioner of Railway Safety (Southern Circle, Bengaluru) only in March 2023, following the retirement of AK Rai.

BMRCL officials were unavailable to comment.

On January 10, 2023, a woman and her toddler son were killed when a reinforcement structure made of iron rods for the under-construction 18-metre Metro pillar at HBR Layout collapsed. The woman's husband and daughter were hospitalised with injuries.

In January, Karnataka High Court took cognizance of the accident and called for a response from Metro authorities on whether safety measures were followed.

While BMRCL assigned IISc Bengaluru to conduct the investigation, the city police appointed IIT Hyderabad to determine the cause of the incident. The IISc and IIT teams both concluded that the main cause of the collapse was an insufficient support structure for the tall reinforcement cage.

BMRCL suspended three engineers and booked nine people after the accident. It also put a stop to work on piers taller than 12 meters. As a result, the Namma Metro project between Hebbal and KR Puram on the Outer Ring Road has been progressing slowly. This section is part of the KR Puram-Hebbal-Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) Metro corridor, which has a deadline of 2025-2026.