BANGALORE: Tower ‘C' of Prestige Shantiniketan, a township project on a 105-acre campus in Whitefield, came down crashing on Thursday evening. All the 14 floors of a portion of the tower collapsed. Four workers were injured.
Around 4.20 pm, one corner of the roof started to give in. Six floors of the block crashed suubsequently; the entire portion collapsed within the next half hour. About 60 workers working on the rooftop, removing the centring structure, ran to safety when the crash occurred. Fire force joint director B G Chengappa, who visited the spot, said the exact reason for the crash had to be ascertained by structural engineers. Prestige Group chairman Irfan Razack said there were no casualties, nor was any worker injured. IJM, a Malaysian infrastructure company, were the contractors for the project. Asked about the cause of the crash, he said: "We believe a concrete slab that was being laid fell, and that then had a cascading effect. While I don't think there's any structural problem, we will evaluate all possibilities that could have led to this." The fire force could not launch a full-fledged rescue operation for two and a half hours because of the gradual collapse. Even after all the 14 floors had crashed, raising a cloud of cement, rescue could not begin because of reduced visibility. Light evening showers further delayed the process. Later, the fire force abandoned the operation following assurances from the promoters that there were no workers in the building at the time of the crash. A project officer from the Prestige Group informed the police that one person was missing. Four workers who were at the bottom of the tower sustained injuries. They were taken to Vaidehi Hospital.
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