Four wounded OLMT workers fight for their lives

Accident exposes lack of safety protocols for workers at the project site

LAHORE: Four laborers were severely injured in an accident which occurred at the construction site of the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project. The incident occurred near the Mandi Stop on Multan Road on Tuesday and was allegedly caused by a violation of safety protocols during.

The victims were being taken to the track with a puller lifted by a crane. Suddenly, the puller broke down and the victims fell to the ground. They suffered critical injuries and were admitted to a nearby hospital.

They were identified as Rizwan, Shahid, Ijaz and Shahzad. Three of them were under 18 years of age.

Eyewitness accounts, photos of the victims and video footage showed that none of them were wearing safety gear.

This is not the first time workers have had been exposed to poor working conditions during OLMT construction.

This project has claimed over 25 lives of workers to date.

On January 11, 2017, seven people working on the OLMT project died and 14 others were injured in a fire incident on the third storey of a makeshift residence near Mehmood Booti. On May 24, 2016, seven workers died and several others injured when the wall of a warehouse had collapsed on their make-shift residence near Manwan. The deceased were identified as Rashid, Muhammad Nadeem, Muhammad Usman, Zulfikar, Nadar, Muhammad Irfan, and Muhammad Maqbool.

In January 2016, two labourers died of an electric shock while working on the Orange Line Metro Train project in Chung area.

In another incident, Muhammad Ashfaq died on October 19, 2015, when he lost control of a motorcycle he was riding as he tried to overtake a truck-mounted concrete mixer which was headed for construction work on OLMT.

Azeem Ishaque also died in an accident involving a mixer vehicle on November 26, 2015. He lost balance of a motorcycle he was riding past the mixer when a sack of clothes he was carrying got stuck in the vehicle.

He fell to the ground and was run over by the truck’s rear wheel. Amanullah, a safety worker at Habib Construction Services, was guiding an excavator before slipping and being run over by a vehicle. He died on the spot.

Muhammad Sharif, a labourer hired by a subcontractor, was walking past an excavator when he was hit by a motorcyclist. He lost balance and fell to the ground before being run over by the excavator.

OLMT Steering Committee Chairperson Khawaja Ahmad Hassan, during the project’s weekly progress review meeting on December 15, 2016, had directed metro train contractors and utility companies to immediately provide the required safety gear for workers to avoid any untoward incident.

Hassan also ordered city traffic police officials to ensure all precast material was properly escorted by the traffic officials so that no accident occurs during transportation from the manufacturing yard to the project site.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2017.