A pedestrian was killed and two others were injured as a bearing pad fell from the metro rail structure on the road in Dhaka鈥檚 Farmgate area on Sunday, disrupting the metro services for hours.
In September past year, a metro rail bearing pad fell on the road in the same place, leaving no causalities but halting the services for nearly 11 hours.
The interim government鈥檚 road transport and bridges ministry adviser, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, said that they had formed a probe committee to investigate the incident.
The body will also review the past year鈥檚 probe report, submit recommendations within two weeks to prevent recurrence of such an incident and identify the responsible people for Sunday鈥檚 incident.
Experts said that two similar incidents in a gap of a year indicated faults in construction and urged the authorities for a safety audit immediately for the entire Mass Rapid Transit Line鈥�6 project on the Uttara-Motijheel route.
The deceased is identified as Abul Kalam Azad, 35, son of Jalil Chokdar and Honufa Begum and a resident of Noria in Shariatpur, Tejgaon police station officer-in-charge Md Mobarak said.
Azad was working for a travel agency in Uttara area in the capital and was living with his wife and two children at Chashara in Narayanganj, said Md Shahadat, husband of Azad鈥檚 niece.
The two injured were taken to the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital.
Following the Sunday鈥檚 incident, the metro rail services were immediately halted and the services resumed on the Uttara-Agargaon section after two and a half hours and on the Motijheel-Shhabagh section after seven hours.
Services on the Bijoy Sarani-Karwan Bazar section did not resume till Sunday night considering safety of the public. Passengers suffered immensely on the route due to lack of transports.
Md Faruque Ahmed, managing director of the Dhaka Mass Transport Company Limited 鈥� the implementing agency of metro rail, said that the accident took place at about 12:20pm, halting the entire metro rail services immediately.
Witnesses said that during the incident they had heard a loud sound as something fell from the line on the Khamar Bari road. The bearing pad fell from the pier no 433 near the entrance of the Farmgate metro station. Earlier, in 2024, the bearing pad dropped from the pier no 430.
Champa Akhter, an eye witness, said that the thing (bearing pad) dropped from the line, bounced on the road below and hit the victim鈥檚 neck when he was walking on the footpath.
The victim fell on the footpath immediately and blood came out from his nose and mouth, she said, adding that he got silent within seconds.
She also said that after hitting the victim, the pad also hit two people at a shop on the footpath and injured the two slightly.
Bearing pad is a square block constructed with rubber and steel and weighs nearly 100 kilograms, said the company officials. Four bearing pads were placed between a pier and the viaduct by which the trains run. As both the viaduct and pier are made of concrete, the officials said, if the viaduct is directly placed on the piers it could cause friction problems, decay and displacement. For these reasons, bearing pads were being placed between these two to secure the structure.
While visiting the spot at about 2:00pm, DMTCL managing director Faruque Ahmed, replying to journalists鈥� question, said that there was a probability that when the trains were running, the pad slipped due to jerking.
He said that it would take time to reopen the services on the entire line as crane and other mechanical equipment would join the repair works.
He also said that he would not rule out possible faults in the design and construction of the metro rail project.
About the past year鈥檚 incident, he said that remedial step had been taken at that time.
The adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan came at the spot at about 2:30pm along with special assistant to the chief adviser retired Lt General Abdul Hafiz and senior officials of the road ministry.
While talking to journalists, he said that a five-member probe committee, headed by Bridges Division secretary Md Abdur Rouf, had been formed, which would submit its report within two weeks.
鈥楾he committee will review if there were defects in the design or construction or if the incident was a sabotage,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥榯he committee will identify the people responsible and to stop the recurrence.鈥�
Fouzul Kabir also said that they would primarily give Tk聽5 lakh to the family of the deceased and later would give a job to any eligible member of his family.
The two injured were admitted at Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital, he said. Later he visited the hospital to meet the injured people.
The probe committee members are from BUET, Military Institute of Science and Technology, road ministry and DMTCL.聽聽聽
Professor Shamsul Hoque, director of Accident Research Institute and a teacher of civil engineering of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said that the incident took place twice within a year soon after the opening of the metro rail after spending so much money.
鈥楾hese incidents indicated that there are defects in construction,鈥� he said and alleged that the consultants compromised the construction.
Professor Shamsul said that the DMTCL also could not avoid its responsibility and immediately it should conduct a safety audit.
The services of the country鈥檚 first 20.1-kilometre-long metro rail system were inaugurated on December 28, 2022 on the Uttara-Agargaon section. The route was extended up to Motijheel in November 2023.
Following extension of the line till Kamalapur, the revised cost now stands at around Tk 33,472 crore (with Japan International Cooperation Agency provided Tk 19,719 crore as loan) from Tk 21,985.07 crore while the modified deadline is December 2025 which was June 2024.
The project is still under defect liability period. Lead of the consortium of consultants of the project was Nippon Koei Ltd of Japan.
The Agargaon-Karwan Bazar portion or package 5 of the project was constructed by a Japan-Bangladesh joint venture firm 鈥� Takken Corporation, Abdul Monem Ltd and Abenikko.
