Flying debris from blast site for Metro subway breaks minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s Mantralaya window, FIR against contractor | Mumbai News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Window panes of forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar‘s office at Mantralaya and of a few cars parked nearby were damaged when stone pieces flew out during blasting for the construction of a pedestrian subway to connect the secretariat to Metro 3’s proposed Vidhan Bhavan station on Thursday afternoon.
Mungantiwar was not present in his first-floor office during the incident around 2pm. “The stones flew quite a distance from the construction area. Fortunately, no one suffered any injuries,” said a person who was present at the site.
A Mantralaya security officer lodged an FIR with the Marine Drive police. “This is a case of negligence. We have booked L&T’s officials concerned and contractor,” said a police officer.
L&T is implementing the subway project, which is not a part of the Metro 3 project. PWD assigned the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL), which is constructing the 32.5km underground Metro, the 380m subway project via the lane behind the SBI building. MMRCL brought in L&T.
“L&T was carrying out controlled blasting for the subway whose entry and exit is planned in the Mantralaya precincts,” said a source. The entire area has been barricaded with no access to unauthorised persons. “The police had given permission for the work with conditions. The persons concerned had not installed the safety net properly,” said the Marine Drive officer. L&T officials did not respond to calls.
For controlled blasting, the area is surveyed and tubes containing explosives are placed in drilled holes. The detonators are triggered from a safe distance. A three-layer muffling system, which consists of rubber bag, sang bag and wire mesh, is put above the rock to be blasted to curb noise and flying splinters.
An expert who has worked in such project said: “Rocks which are hard and abrasive in nature are difficult to break mechanically. Also, mechanical devices like jet hammers take too much time and make annoying noise.”
MMRCL has decided to stop work at the site pending review. “We are stopping controlled blasting work at the subway near Mantralaya and work will be restarted only after causes are studied and corrective action is taken,” said its spokesperson.
(Inputs Mateen Hafeez)