Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Tuesday told the Delhi High Court, hearing a plea of residents welfare associations, that it has initiated action against its engineers involved in the Jamrudpur accident.
Counsel for DMRC submitted a report to the division bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Manmohan and said the DMRC has already initiated an inquiry against the engineers involved and had also imposed a fine on Gammon India, the contractor of the Metro line under construction.

The report also stated that the material and design of the line was perfect and needed no changes, but the engineers failed to calculate as to how much load the pillar could take and that was why the mishap took place.

The resident welfare associations of the area had alleged that the Metro was using substandard material and the design was not perfect.

On this, the court pulled up the resident welfare associations for going beyond their petition and said: “You are going beyond the writ petition. Either you withdraw or else we will dismiss it.”

Counsel for the RWAs withdrew the petition with liberty to file a fresh petition on it.

The petitioners had alleged that the Metro was bypassing all safety measures and cited as an example the accident at Jamrudpur on the upcoming Central Secretariat-Badarpur line that killed six people July 12.

The petitioners sought that the court direct the Delhi Metro to construct underground tracks over 6 km from Lajpat Nagar to Kalkaji on the Central Secretariat-Badarpur line.

The RWAs have opposed the elevated stretch, citing environmental and safety concerns. They claim that an elevated stretch would lead to increased noise pollution and affect the environment.

The petition has been filed by the E-Block Residents’ Welfare Society, the Greater Kailash Society, the Defence Colony Residents’ Welfare Association, the Lajpat Nagar-III Neighbourhood Residents’ Association, the Kailash Fraternity and Kailash Colony Association.