By IANS,
New Delhi: As Delhi Metro faces a tough time with three accidents in the last 10 days, its chief E. Sreedharan Wednesday said that 90 people have died in several accidents related to the construction of the mass transport system over the last one decade in the national capital.
Sreedharan said that though a lot of hype has been created about the accidents during the construction of phase two of the Metro lines, it was the phase one which witnessed more fatal accidents.
“In Phase-I, consisting of 65 km, there were 55 casualties, out of which 15 casualties were not directly connected with site accidents as they happened on the roads near the sites. In Phase-II, there have been 35 deaths so far, including today’s (Wednesday) casualty. Phase-II consists of 125 km,” Sreedharan said in a statement.
In the last 10 days, Delhi Metro has witnessed three accidents which killed seven people and injured at least 21 others.
“The DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) accident rate is still very low as compared to international standards as Singapore has 1.1 accidents per million man-hours, London Underground has 0.32 accidents and Delhi Metro Phase-II has 0.4 accidents,” he said.
Highlighting the good record of Delhi Metro, the Metro Man said: “Some major international accidents involving casualties include Heathrow high-speed line (UK) where 21 people died in a tunnel collapse, and Singapore where seven to eight people died in a tunnel collapse”.
Delhi Metro work in the capital is very widespread with 250 – 300 cranes working daily. The number of workers engaged in these activities are 35,000 – 40,000 every day. Currently, the modern transport system of Delhi ferries around 850,000 passengers a day.