Police constable killed after piling rig collapses at under construction flyover site in Mumbai

MUMBAI: A police constable was killed after a heavy piling rig toppled on him at an under-construction flyover site in Mumbai, officials said on Wednesday. The accident occurred on the northbound carriageway of the Sion-Panvel Highway in the Mankhurd area on Tuesday night when the constable, Santosh Gopal Chavan, was heading home on his motorcycle, they said, according to news agency PTI. A piling rig used for drilling foundation piles collapsed and struck him at the site where flyover construction work was in progress, an official from Mankhurd police station said. Chavan, who suffered severe injuries, was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead, the official said. The constable, attached to Nehru Nagar police station, was on deputation to the east control room in Chembur. Preliminary findings suggest that the equipment may have been positioned on unstable soil, leading to the collapse, as per officials. Authorities have initiated legal action, with the Mankhurd police in the process of registering a case against the contractor for alleged negligence. Officials were investigating the role of contractors and site supervisors, while also reviewing whether mandatory safety protocols were followed at the construction site, the police said. On April 15, a mobile crane toppled during Metro construction in the Bandra-Kurla Complex. No injury was reported in the incident. Earlier, in February, one person died and three others were injured after a slab of the girder bridge of an under-construction Metro rail line collapsed on a few vehicles in Mumbai's Mulund area.