A day after a 19-year-old worker died at the construction site of the Sewri Worli Connector, making it the fourth death at an infrastructure work site within a week, sources from the MMRDA claimed the contractor J Kumar failed to report the incident to the authority. A preliminary penalty of Rs 1 crore has been levied on J Kumar, and Rs 25 lakh on the consultant, Asystem STUP.

An official from the MMRDA said, “MMRDA’s safety protocols clearly mandate immediate reporting and escalation of any serious incident occurring at project sites… The authority has identified significant lapses in safety compliance, supervision, and reporting responsibility on the part of both the contractor and the consultant. Strict action has therefore been initiated to reinforce accountability and ensure that such failures are not repeated.”

The incident took place on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday at around 12.15am, along Acharya Donde Marg in Parel. Ravi Giri, a 19-year-old worker from Nepal, was working at the construction site where pier steel shutters were being shifted using a hydra machine when he was struck by the steel shutter while in transit. He sustained severe injuries and fell unconscious.

The worker was taken to KEM Hospital for treatment, where he was declared dead at 3:05am on Tuesday. Giri, his father Anil Giri, and uncle Dheeraj Kumar had come to Mumbai in 2023 to work as daily wage earners, and lived at the Sewri Worli Connector labour camp.

An FIR was registered on Anil Giri’s complaint in which the crane operator as well as the absent site supervisor were named, under Section 106(1) of the BNS, death due to negligence. By Tuesday evening, Giri’s body was collected from KEM Hospital after the postmortem.

All this while, the MMRDA, which was carrying out the 4.5km Sewri Worli Connector work, claimed to be unaware of the incident. “The authority became aware of the incident only after over 20 hours, and that too through media reports, rather than through the mandatory institutional reporting mechanism,” said a source.

When MMRDA questioned contractor J Kumar about the incident, there was an alleged attempt to conceal it. When The Indian Express reached out to MMRDA officials, including commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee, there was no response.

As per contractual obligations and safety standard operating procedures (SOP) of the MMRDA, contractors and project management consultants (PMC) are mandated to immediately report accidents at project sites. The source cited “a serious breakdown of reporting transparency, supervisory accountability, and compliance with established safety escalation protocols”.

Preliminary findings showed gross negligence on part of the contractor in maintaining safety standards and reporting obligations. It also noted that the PMC, French consultancy firm Asystem STUP, failed in its contractual responsibilities. “The PMC failed to discharge its core responsibilities relating to independent safety supervision, monitoring, and immediate escalation of critical incidents to the authority,” said the source.

Taking the failures in basic duties, the MMRDA has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on J Kumar and Rs 25 lakh on Asystem STUP. The contractor will also compensate Giri’s family, said a source, but the amount is yet to be announced.

A worker who lives beside the room Giri used to live in at the Labour Colony said, “We found out about the incident when his father returned to their room, and started crying… I knew him as a young boy who used to work in the site. His father and uncle have gone back to their village with the body for last rites.”