Gurugram, March 10 – Seven construction workers were killed and four others, including three Nepalese men, were injured when a pile of soil collapsed on them at a construction site here, police said on Tuesday. The project in-charge and site in-charge have been arrested.
The district administration has set up an inquiry committee to investigate the matter.
The family of one of the deceased has alleged that the workers were not provided with adequate safety measures at the construction site.
The incident occurred on Monday evening at the Signature Global Society in Gurugram's Sidhrawali area.
A Gurugram police spokesperson said that an FIR has been registered under Sections 105 and 125 of the BNS (Indian Penal Code) dealing with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and act endangering life or personal safety of others.
According to Inspector Sunil Kumar of the Bilaspur police station in Gurugram, two arrests have been made in connection with the incident.
"We have arrested Dineshwar and Vikas, who were the project and site in-charge, and further investigations are underway," the SHO said.
In another development, Haryana's Labour Department has issued an order prohibiting further construction at the site under the project of M/s Signature Global India Pvt Ltd at village Sidhrawali, NH-8, Gurugram, "until safe working conditions are restored".
DSP Yogesh of Bhiwadi told reporters that construction work of a sewerage treatment plant (STP) was ongoing when a pile of soil suddenly collapsed, and some labourers – around 12-15 – got trapped under the debris.
Upon receiving information, a police team from the Bilaspur Police Station, Gurugram, along with State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel reached the site and rescued the labourers.
They rushed them to a nearby hospital in Bhiwadi, where seven of them were declared dead. The post-mortem examination of the deceased will be conducted in Gurugram, the DSP said. It appears they died due to asphyxiation.
Speaking to the media in Rajasthan's Bhiwadi, a relative of one of the deceased workers said that the labourers were working several feet below when the pile of soil collapsed on them. A relative of the deceased has also demanded Rs 50 lakh as compensation.
An injured worker said that the pile of soil suddenly collapsed on them, and they got buried under the debris.
At least two workers at the site said they had a narrow escape, as shortly before the incident, they were sent to procure some material.
According to a Gurugram police statement, six of the deceased were men from Jharkhand, while Satish was from Bharatpur in Rajasthan.
Among the four injured, Indrajit, Chhotelal and Shivkam Chaudhary are residents of Nepal. Police informed the family members of the victims.
On Tuesday, SDM Manesar Darshan Yadav also visited the accident site and examined it.
Satish had been working at the site for nearly a year and is survived by a 3-year-old son, among others, his brother, Rameshwar, told reporters.
He said that the kind of safety arrangement and equipment that should have been there at such construction was not there.
In a written complaint, he stated that the construction work for the STP plant at Signature Global Company was being executed by a private construction company, where labourers were being made to work inside a deep, "kutcha" pit.
The complaint alleged that the construction company, the contractor, the project-in-charge, the site structure-in-charge, and the safety-in-charge officer failed to provide adequate safety arrangements and safety equipment.
This failure, the complaint asserted, led to the accident caused by the soil collapse, resulting in the deaths of the complainant's brother and the other labourers.
Gurugram Police said that they are also examining if there was a delay in alerting the police and district administration regarding the incident.
The Labour Department issued an order to prohibit any further construction till safe working conditions are restored. Sumit Kumar, Assistant Director, Industrial Safety and Health, Gurugram-II, inspected the site on Tuesday and made various observations.
According to the order, his observations include that the banks of the excavation approximately 30-feet-deep are undercut to such an extent that landslides were possible which could put the lives of workers in danger.
A part of the boundary wall adjacent to the excavation has already fallen towards the insides of the excavation. The walls of the excavation are dangerously undercut below the remaining wall at multiple places. The wall of pillars at few places are hanging literally support less, which could cause casualties, the senior official observed.
Gurugram Deputy Commissioner, Ajay Kumar, has constituted a committee of officials, headed by the sub divisional magistrate of Manesar, to investigate the matter.
The committee has been directed to conduct a detailed inquiry into the causes of the incident and submit its investigation report within a stipulated timeframe.
The district administration said the committee will submit a report to the office of the deputy commissioner in a time-bound manner.