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.
15 November 2008
Three perish in City manhole
07 November 2008
28 October 2008
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.
Fire services facilities under study
BANGALORE: The Fire and Emergency Services Department is undertaking a study of fire services facilities in all government buildings across the State, including the Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha, Visvesvaraya Towers and Multi-storeyed Building, said Director-General of Police (Fire and Emergency Services) Jija Madhavan Harisingh.
Making a presentation on “Disaster management” at a function organised by the Bangalore Management Association on Thursday, Ms. Harisingh said that Fire and Emergency Services personnel were assessing facilities for fire fighting, including the number of water hydrants, sprinklers and smoke detecting devices.
Making a presentation on “Disaster management” at a function organised by the Bangalore Management Association on Thursday, Ms. Harisingh said that Fire and Emergency Services personnel were assessing facilities for fire fighting, including the number of water hydrants, sprinklers and smoke detecting devices.
Lacuna
“We will point out the lacunas to the departments concerned and help them bring in related facilities,” she said.
The Public Works Department, which is maintaining Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha, will be informed about the facilities needed for these two buildings.
“This work is on since two months. We will cover all the government buildings in the State,” Ms. Harisingh said.
“We will point out the lacunas to the departments concerned and help them bring in related facilities,” she said.
The Public Works Department, which is maintaining Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha, will be informed about the facilities needed for these two buildings.
“This work is on since two months. We will cover all the government buildings in the State,” Ms. Harisingh said.
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