Are we safe in Bengaluru?

A pillar of iron rods which came crashing down Tuesday morning on the Outer Ring Road, one of the key traffic corridors criss-crossing the city, shattered our peace and the happiness of a family of four and was a cruel reminder to all of us of the uncertain and precarious times we live in. Who would have imagined that a mass of iron, meant to prop up Namma Metro girders and rafters, would instead turn a killer with many thanking their lucky stars that they escaped the tragedy by a fraction of a second?

Work on Metro lines is going on in full swing on several stretches in the city and there are workmen swarming around huge piles of construction material and equipment at these places. Such a massive project right in the heart of a heavily inhabited city with lines passing through hugely populated residential localities, obviously calls for stringent safety measures so that a negligent act does not lead to loss of valuable lives. Considering the way the city is structured, it is virtually impossible to divert the burgeoning traffic and commuters completely away from metro construction sites.

And so the best that BMRCL which is executing the Metro project can do is to make sure its workers are adequately trained in safety procedures. This is all the more important as many of these workers are migrant labourers from other parts of the country who have come here in search of means of livelihood and they have to be taught the safety drill from scratch step by step so that a single fault does not lead to a massive disaster.

There are conflicting and unconfirmed theories doing the rounds about the cause of the accident -that the iron rods tilted for some time before collapsing on the family; that it was not cemented properly and so on. From a layman’s viewpoint, one can reasonably assume that such huge structures do not collapse all of a sudden unless there has been a lapse somewhere and it is this which BMRCL and the IISc, assigned the task of conducted the probe, will have to identify so that mistakes of this kind do not repeat in future.

The incident has triggered a huge outpouring of sympathy for the grief-stricken family who lost two of their dear ones including a two-year-old kid, and also reactions of anger and bitterness over what many felt, was the insensitive attitude of Metro officials despite the fact that such incidents have happened in the past too, largely involving metro workers. As Bengalureans, it’s high time we united in our anger, spurred by the resolve to protect and preserve our own from such cruel incidents.

Probes and compensation, however high it may be, cannot bring back the lives of those we have lost as the kin of one of the victims said tearfully after the incident and so the focus should be on preventing them from happening at any cost. And that will happen only when BMRCL firms up its safety measures and its officials always have the thought at the top of their minds that there are lives at risk if they err even in minute measure.

The incident is a grim reminder that this is no longer a city where one can take a stroll with a carefree spirit, unmindful of the risks involved for they are always there in every city corner. Burgeoning traffic, uneven and pothole-ridden roads, poorly-lit streets, construction activity of an unprecedented scale and of course Metro sites where one will have to tread with utmost care - we have enough to reckon with and a lot more and so caution is the key.