Twenty people, including two site engineers and 12 workers, were crushed to death when a girder launching machine collapsed on them late on Monday night, during the third phase of the construction of a viaduct on the Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra’s Thane district.
According to officials from the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Limited (MSRDC), the incident took place at around 11:30 p.m. at Khutadi Sarlambe village in Shahapur tehsil, when construction personnel were doing preparatory work for the next day. “The launching gantry along with segment launcher (crane), weighing 700 tonnes, came crashing down from a height of 35 metres,” an official said.
While 20 people — two engineers, five staff and 13 workers — lost their lives on the spot, three workers are undergoing treatment at hospitals. The bodies of the victims were shifted to the Shahapur government hospital for autopsy.
