- Thursday, February 27, 2025
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis condold the deaths and ordered a probe into the incident by experts.
By: Shubham Ghosh
SEVENTEEN workers were crushed to death while three got injured after a massive crane collapsed on a bridge slab while construction work was underway for a highway in Thane district of the western Indian state of Maharashtra on Tuesday (1), according to officials.
The accident happened while the ill-fated workers were busy constructing the third phase of the Samruddhi Mahamarg (Expressway) which connects state capital Mumbai with Nagpur, located more than 700 kilometres (km) apart.
At least 17 workers were killed after a heavy-duty crane crashed on the girder of under-construction Phase III Mumbai-Nagpur #SamruddhiExpressway near Shahpur in Thane.#Thane #Maharashtra #Shahapur #NDRF pic.twitter.com/HUb2JCURcE
— Surya Reddy (@jsuryareddy) August 1, 2023
The Samruddhi Mahamarg, officially called Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg, is a 701-km-long expressway connecting Mumbai and Nagpur.
“A few persons are still feared trapped and efforts are on to rescue them,” a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official said, the PTI reported.
The three injured people were being treated at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital at Kalva in Thane, he said.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said in a X post that he has ordered a probe into the incident by experts.
He expressed grief over the death of workers in the accident.
The crane that collapsed was a special-purpose mobile gantry one used in bridge construction and to install precast box girders in highway construction projects. The accident took place shortly after midnight on Tuesday near Sarlambe village in Shahapur tehsil, around 80 kilometres (km) from Mumbai, the official said.
The construction of the Samruddhi Mahamarg is being carried out by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation.
The first phase, connecting Nagpur to the temple town of Shirdi, was inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi in December last year and covers a distance of 520 km.
Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis inaugurated the 80-km long second phase of the Samruddhi Mahamarg stretch from Bharvir village in Igatpuri taluka to Shirdi on May 26.
Shinde said in May that the third and last phase would be completed by the end of December this year.
As many as 88 people have lost their lives in road accidents in the last six months on Samruddhi Expressway, an official said. Road hypnosis is cited as one of the causes of the accidents on the six lane wide access-controlled expressway, the state highway police official said.
(With PTI inputs)
