Taking action after a person died and three others were injured in the Metro slab collapse in Mumbai's Mulund on Saturday, the Maharashtra government has suspended an executive engineer and imposed a penalty of Rs 6 crore on the contractors and consultants involved in the project.
Five employees of the contractors, including the project director, have been arrested.
A slab of the under-construction Metro Line-4, which connects Wadala to Thane, fell on an auto-rickshaw and a car on the arterial LBS Marg in Mulund on Saturday afternoon. Ramdhan Yadav, a prominent local Samajwadi Party official and village head, who was travelling to a wedding, died, while three others were injured.
Deputy Chief Minister and Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde ordered the suspension of Executive Engineer Satyajeet Salve and said penalties totalling Rs 6 crore had been imposed on the contractors and consultants, Milan Road Buildtech and Louis Berger.
Shinde also ordered a comprehensive safety and structural audit of the entire Metro stretch and announced an increased compensation of Rs 15 lakh for Yadav's family.
Police said they have arrested four employees of Milan Road Buildtech and one from the DB Hill LBG Supervisory company, including Project Director Harish Chauhan and two project managers.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also said a thorough probe will be conducted into the incident and action will be taken against those responsible.
Hitting out at the government, the Opposition said it does not value people's lives.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray said, "If you notice, pillars are already painted, before the work was completed... Even today, most infrastructure work has terrible barricading that either leads to traffic jams or vehicles falling into open pits... Life has no value under the BJP regime," he said.
Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad also asked whether the lives of Mumbai residents have "become cheap".
"Why are safety rules only on paper when Metro work is underway? Why weren't adequate safety arrangements made when work was in progress on such a busy road?" she asked.
