BRT Project Site Near Airport: Accidents expose lack of safety
At least six workers, including three Chinese nationals, involved in construction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Line-3 were injured as a part of a launching girder fell on them while they were working near Dhaka airport yesterday.
The accident took place around 10:30am, hours after a pier cap of an elevated section of the same BRT line collapsed, exposing serious weaknesses in safety measures.
A launching girder is a type of gantry crane used for lifting and installing girders of viaducts.
All the injured were admitted to Evercare Hospital in the capital. The condition of one of the Chinese workers was stated to be critical while another was discharged from the hospital, said officials.
The Tk 4,268.38-crore project, which witnessed several revisions of both cost and deadline, is being implemented by Dhaka Bus Rapid Transit Company Limited (DBRTCL), a government-owned company, to set up a 20.50km line for dedicated bus service from Dhaka airport to Gazipur.
Though the latest deadline for completing the project is June next year, it witnessed overall progress of about 52 percent till February this year, officials said.
The project is funded by Asian Development Bank, French Development Agency and Global Environment Facility. Three government agencies -- Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) and Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) -- are involved in the implementation of various segments of the project.
THE INCIDENTS
DBRTCL Managing Director Shafiqul Islam said the workers were on duty when a portion of a launching girder collapsed.
An investigation committee has been formed to find the reasons behind the accident, he mentioned.
Workers and engineers present at the spot said a part of the heavy equipment collapsed while it was being placed at a point between pier no 8 and 9 on the Dhaka-Gazipur road.
When this correspondent visited the spot around 1:00pm, he found that construction work on that part of the BRT-3 line was suspended and police put barricades around the spot, narrowing down the roads on both sides. This resulted in huge traffic jam on the busy roads, lasting several hours.
Seeking anonymity, an engineer working as a consultant for the project said the contractor -- China Gezhouba Group Co Ltd -- was not supposed to do loading, unloading and lifting of viaducts in daytime for safety of traffic.
Shafiqul, however, said the contractor is working day and night as they are lagging behind the deadline. The contractor may not have informed the project authorities formally, but the authorities knew about the work in the daytime, he added.
ASM Elias Shah, project director for the segment being implemented by the RHD, echoed Shafiqul's opinion.
Hours before the accident, an under-construction pier cap of the project in Uttara collapsed early yesterday.
The pier cap, casting of which was done on Saturday night, collapsed as its support got displaced at some point, Shafiqul said.
Asked how the support got displaced, Shafiqul said, "Some of them [workers] said a truck hit the support while others said it got displaced on its own. The real cause will be known after investigation."
Visiting the spot, this correspondent found several workers were clearing the derbies of the pier cap in front of the Polwel Carnation Shopping Centre in Uttara. Three to four workers were seen guarding the area and a bamboo fence was put up around the site.
PROBE COMMITTEE
The seven-member committee, led by Joint Secretary of Road Transport and Highways Division Anisur Rahman, will probe the two incidents, Shafiqul said.
It was asked to submit a report within seven working days, he told this correspondent.
LONG DELAY
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project in November 2012 for dedicated rapid bus service between Gazipur and Shahjalal International Airport. Once operational, it will be able to transport 20,000 passengers per hour.
The project was supposed to be completed at a cost of Tk 2,037.85 crore by December 2016.
But it got delayed due to various problems, including management of a massive quantity of industrial waste and huge traffic, said a report of the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division released in June last year.
Waterlogging in the project areas between Tongi and Joydebpur is another major reason for the delay in implementation, it mentioned.
The project eventually went through four revisions, taking the total cost to Tk 4,268.32 crore -- around 107 percent more than the original cost.
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