In a spine-chilling incident, the routine work of laborers turned deadly at the Samruddhi Expressway construction site in Maharashtra’s Thane district. The grim disaster unfolded in the early hours of Tuesday when a girder machine – a gargantuan mobile gantry crane critical to bridge construction – plummeted onto unsuspecting workers, instantly snuffing out the lives of 17 individuals, according to local police.

The horrific accident, which took place near Sarlambe village in Shahpur tehsil, sparked a frenzied rescue operation. Teams from the police, fire brigade, and local agencies scrambled to the scene in an attempt to save as many lives as possible. However, the outlook remains grim with officials warning the death toll may yet climb.

The Samruddhi Mahamarg, also known as the Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg, is a mammoth 701-km expressway weaving its way through ten districts, linking Mumbai and Nagpur. Under the stewardship of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), the ambitious project has been progressing in phases.

The Prime Minister himself inaugurated the first phase, a hefty 520 km stretch from Nagpur to the spiritual town of Shirdi, in December 2022. The Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde, had previously stated that the third and final phase of the expressway was slated for completion by year-end. However, Tuesday’s catastrophic event has cast a somber shadow over the project, and questions over worker safety will undoubtedly reverberate in the days ahead.

  Eknath Shinde, Maharashtra, MSRDC, Mumbai, Samruddhi Expressway, Sarlambe, Shahpur, Thane