Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Just a day after the Delhi Metro started trial runs on the Yamuna Bank (East Delhi) to Noida (NCR) line, cracks have been identified on two piers with cantilevers on the stretch.
The cracks, found during a special check, have come to light barely a fortnight after a cantilever pier collapsed at the Metro’s under-construction site at Zamrudpur in South Delhi, in which six people were killed. Just a day after, on July 13, three cranes had collapsed while clearing the accident site of the debris.
The Delhi Metro’s newest corridor — from Yamuna Bank to Noida’s Sector 32 — is nearly complete and trial runs here began yesterday. The line is scheduled to be thrown open to public by end of August.
However, the chances of that development are slim now.
The cracks were found during a special check being carried out by independent consultants Shirish Patel and Associates, appointed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) following the Zamrudpur mishap to review all its cantilever piers.
The consultants found the cracks on Saturday and DMRC managing director E Sreedharan immediately ordered an investigation after inspecting the piers. The focus of the probe will be to evaluate how serious the cracks are and why they had occurred.
Gammon India, which was carrying out construction at the Zamrudpur accident site on the Central Secretariat-Badarpur line, is the civil contractor here also.
The cracks were spotted on Piers 10 and 14, which are located near the Indian Oil building in Sector 14 of Noida, and Sreedharan said the crack on Pillar 14 was superficial, while he order a thorough inspection into the pier 10.
According to DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal, the cracks are ‘hairline’. There does not seem to be any problem with the structure of the piers, but after the Zamrudpur incident, the DMRC has to be very sure, he added.
The trial runs on the 13.1-km-long Noida line have only been started on the Yamuna Bank-New Ashok Nagar stretch for now and will be extended to Noida City Centre Sector 32 after 10 days.
First Published: Monday, July 27, 2009, 12:43