BANGALORE: Five daily wage labourers hailing from Bihar were killed on the spot and three others suffered grievous injuries after a brick wall, 35 feet high, of an illegal warehouse collapsed on them at a construction site in the C.K. Palya area of Mantapa Gram Panchayat near Bannerghatta around 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Appalling quality
The poor quality of the construction was apparent from the fact that chunks of binding material used in the wall were crumbling in one's fist. The owner of the site, Srinivas Reddy, is absconding.
The dead men are Rajiv (60), Sanjeev (28), Raju (60), Jugal (40) and Pargu (40) and the injured are were identified as Sonu (35), Santosh (18) and Paramanand Chowdary (35).
Head, spine injuries
V.L. Satish, Medical Superintendent of NIMHANS, told The Hindu that Mr. Santosh is in a semi-conscious state after sustaining severe head injuries and is being kept under observation. Mr. Chowdhary's thoracic spine has been badly injured resulting in the weakening of his limbs.
Nagarjuna (22), a resident of Mulbagal who was working at the site, had a miraculous escape, suffering only minor injuries. “All I remember is that the wall started slanting toward us. I woke up in the hospital later,” he told The Hindu. He said the wall was being plastered when it collapsed.
Not an ounce of sand
A team of experts, who visited the spot with Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje, found that the binding material used did not even have an ounce of sand and contained very little cement. Instead of sand, the builder used cheaply available granite dust in the mix procured from nearby stone quarries, the experts said.
Based on his initial observations, Home Minister R. Ashok, who claimed to have some knowledge of constructions, said that only 25 per cent of the required steel was used. He also said: “Investigations have revealed that no engineer was hired by the builder. He (Srinivas Reddy) is the owner, structural engineer as well as work supervisor at the site.”
Unauthorised construction
Local MLA M. Krishnappa of the BJP said that the construction was completely illegal and unauthorised.
“They have not converted the land (from agricultural to non-agricultural use). They have not paid any taxes or sought any permission from the gram panchayat and the Revenue Department,” he said.
Both Ms. Karandlaje and Mr. Ashok expressed concern over the rash of illegal constructions that were sprouting in the rural areas adjoining the city. They were of the opinion that a comprehensive, statewide policy should be framed to regulate quality standards of constructions falling outside municipal areas.
Showing posts with label Rescue call. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rescue call. Show all posts
03 February 2011
14 July 2010
01 October 2009
Three farmers rescued in Bijapur
MAROONED: Fire and Emergency Services personnel and Home Guards rescuing farmers from the Doni river at Sangapur village in Bijapur on Wednesday.
Bijapur: After six hours of rescue operations, the district administration, the Fire and Emergency Services personnel and the Home Guards were successful in saving three farmers, who were stuck in the flood waters of the Doni river at Sangapur village in Bijapur taluk on Wednesday. According to eye witnesses, Umesh Kastureppa Kasturi, Adiveppa Kasturi and Golappa Ningappa Hirekurubar went to their farm on the banks of Doni early on Wednesday. Around 7 a.m., the Doni waters entered the fields in the surrounding areas giving them no chance to escape. Sensing trouble, the farmers climbed a nearby tree and informed their family members and friends about their condition through their mobile phone. The villagers informed a nearby police station about the incident and by 10 a.m., a team of Home Guards, Fire and Emergency personnel, police officers and doctors rushed to the spot under the leadership of Assistant Commissioner Y.S. Patil. The Home Guards and the Fire and Emergency Services personnel had a tough time in crossing the river as the water was flowing very fast. However, they managed to reach the other end of the river with a rope where the farmers were sitting on the tree. The farmers were brought to safety one by one with the help of the supporting rope. By 3.30 p.m., the farmers were brought to safe places and first aid was provided to them on the spot. The doctors examined all three persons. Mr. Patil told The Hindu that the people of the villages residing on the banks of the Doni had been told to move to safe places at Sangapur village as the situation may further worsen if the rainfall continued. Crops worth crores of rupees had been washed away in the floods and water had already entered some houses on the banks of the river, he added.
25 September 2009
17 September 2009
06 July 2009
Well caves in, injuries 3 construction men
Three workers were injured when a heap of mud fell on them in Mahalakshmipura on Sunday
The three were digging a well when the mud caved in burying them underneath
Fire force personnel rushed to the spot. The workers were rescued after a four-hour battle
The injured are Santosh, 30, Gangadhar, 39, and Ranganath, 45. The incident took place at the house of Keshav on 13th main road in Mahalakshmipura in Rajajinagar. The police said Keshav had given the contract to dig the well in his compound to a mason
About 20 days ago, five labourers had dug up the well till about 20 ft before stopping the work
“On Sunday morning, three workers resumed the digging work. However, in about 15 minutes a huge heap of mud caved in. The mud was wet as it had rained on Saturday night and the mud that they had dug up 20 days ago also fell on them. One of the workers was covered by a huge pile of mud and fire personnel had to struggle for four hours to rescue him,” a police official said
The fire officials pulled out Santosh first and the other two after him
“The workers had not cleared the mud around the well and the rain water had flown into the well. The labourers sustained injuries on their legs and hands
They were shifted to KC General Hospital in Malleswaram. All the workers are from Katpadi in Tamil Nadu, the police said.
From Deccan Chronicle dated 06-07-2009.
04 June 2009
Agonising Wait for Six-year-old Abhishek's Body
BANGALORE, Jun 3: More than two days later and still counting, the body of six-year-old Abhishek Prakash, who was washed away in an open drain on Sunday night in Lingarajpuram, has still not been recovered.
Rescue efforts spread close to 10 km away from the boy’s modest house on Lokesh Tent Road.
The search was called off for the day around 7 p.m. on Tuesday after the squads of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and the Fire Department worked all day scouring the drainage lines till the Nagavara Tank in vain.
S. Puttuswamy, Additional Commissioner (East), BBMP, told The Hindu he would depute four additional batches of pourakarmikas on Wednesday to resume the search even if it meant extending it to the raja kaluve (main stormwater drain).
23 January 2009
Bridge at Hampi collapses; six feared dead, 35 injured
HAMPI: The two-way cable-stayed bridge across river Tungabhadra, linking the world famous Hampi with Anegundi, which was under construction, collapsed on Thursday afternoon. At least six labourers, working at the spot at the time, are feared to have drowned and thirty-five are injured.
Work for laying concrete for the portion in the middle of the bridge was under way when the accident took place. The labourers had just returned to work after the lunch break when a major section of the bridge on the Anegundi side and one part on the Hampi side collapsed. Some of the injuries sustained by the labourers are said to be serious. Some of them swam to safety while others were ferried to safety by the coracle operators who were nearby.
The cables on the Anegundi side of the bridge have been broken and one of the pylons has developed cracks. Whether the cables already laid had become weak and could not withstand the weight of the iron scaffoldings, or whether the collapse was caused by some other cause has not been ascertained yet. A rescue team from the Fire and Emergency Services, had not recovered any body till 8 p.m.
“After having our lunch we came back to work. Suddenly we heard a sound and a jerk. Within a fraction of a second, the bridge collapsed,” Suryababu, one of the labourers, told The Hindu.
According to him, more than 35 workers were on top of the bridge and most of them were safe and were shifted to hospitals at Hospet and Gangavati for treatment.
03 December 2008
15 November 2008
Three perish in City manhole
Pathetic worker safety standards came to the fore yet again, as two labourers and a good samaritan autorickshaw driver breathed their last struggling for air inside a 30-feet manhole at Yelahanka New Town here on Friday.
The workers were on an underground drain cleanup job on a Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) contract, while the driver had tried to rescue them.Standard safety procedures were apparently not strictly followed, before the labourers went down. Narasimhamurthy (30), a resident of Laggere, and Amaresh were the labourers and Srinivas (26), a resident of Cauvery street, Attur Layout was the unfortunate driver.
BWSSB had engaged the services of contractor, Gangadhar to clean all the drains in Yelahanka New Town. Gangadhar had employed several labourers for the purpose. The cleaning work at the accident site on 4th Phase Road began on Friday morning.Narasimhamurthy, Amaresh and a few other workers got busy. But when the others broke for lunch and departed, the duo chose to stay back. This proved costly.The duo got into the 30-ft drain through the manhole using a ladder. But once inside, they started screaming for help, apparently due to suffocation and foul smell. The oxygen content in the air below was very low, and poisonous gases were apparently still potent inside. Autorickshaw driver Srinivas, who was passing by the road, heard the screams and immediately went down the manhole.The duo were struggling for breath by the time Srinivas reached them. Soon, the breathlessness caught him too and he failed in his efforts to lift the duo. Within the next few minutes, all the three collapsed and died, said the police.A few onlookers who had noticed Srinivas entering the manhole, grew suspicious after he failed to return. They alerted the police, who rushed to the spot informing Karnataka State Fire and Emergency officials. The bodies were later lifted and shifted to the Dr BR Ambedkar Medical Hospital.Srinivas, who died while attempting to rescue the two labourers, was the eldest son in a large family. A native of Kolar, he had the added responsibility of looking after his 10 younger brothers. Narasimhamurthy left behind his wife and son.IT-BT Minister, Katta Subramanya Naidu visited the spot and announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each to the kin and kith of the deceased. The Yelahanka New Town police booked a case of negligence against two BWSSB engineers, Somashekhar and Nagendra and contractor Gangadhar.Cloud over safety proceduresA top BWSSB official, while stating that the exact cause of the accident was yet to be ascertained, maintained that the precautions to be adopted were clear.Before any workers enters a manhole, the lid should be opened and the Hydrochloric acid in the air inside allowed to escape for 30 minutes. “A burning candle is placed at the entrance of the manhole.” If the candle gets extinguished, it means the poisonous gas is still present. Workers are permitted to go inside only if the candle continues to burn. Two officials of the Waste Management department had been suspended.
24 October 2008
14 floors of building under construction collapse
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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