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Labourer dead, two hurt in booth collapse in Chandigarh’s Sector 33
Renovation work to set up a coffee shop in two adjoining booths was underway when their concrete roof and walls gave way on Wednesday evening
A labourer was killed and two more were injured after two adjoining booths collapsed amid renovation works near Terraced Garden in Sector 33 on Wednesday evening.
While Arun Tiwari and Chote Lal were rescued from the rubble, Manchan Kumar, 24, was buried underneath and an iron rod also pierced his head.
All three were taken to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, where Kumar was declared brought dead.
As per information, Booth Numbers 9 and 10, which earlier housed a liquor vend, were being renovated to be converted into a coffee shop. While work was underway around 5 pm, the concrete roof and walls gave way, trapping the three labourers.
A large crowd of onlookers gathered as disaster management officials, police personnel and fire fighters rushed to the scene. Police said all three were youths were migrant labourers and efforts were on to contact their families.
UT sub-divisional magistrate (SDM, South) Naveen Rattu, who also reached the spot, said, “The rescue operation took around 2.5 hours. After the three labourers were rescued from the debris, there were rumours that another person was still trapped. Rescue personnel spent some more time clearing the rubble to ensure no one else was missing even as the rescued labourers were rushed to the hospital.”
Special machines were brought in to stabilise the structure and light up the rubble from inside to locate the fourth person, but no one was found.
Chief fire officer and municipal corporation joint commissioner Gurinder Singh Sodhi said, “Our role was to assist the rescue operation. A specialised team trained in disaster management was despatched along with machinery to rescue the labourers.”
Search on for booths’ owner, no FIR as of now
While police from the south division were present at the spot to assist in the rescue operation and to maintain control over the large crowd gathered there, police had yet to register a FIR in the matter.
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP, South) Dabir Singh said, “We are examining whether there were any lapses and a case will be registered based on that. Also, the booths’ owner is not in the city for a statement.”
SDM Rattu added, “Our focus was on the rescue operation, so we haven’t tracked the owner as of now. We will conduct an investigation and check on whether proper permissions and no-objection certificates were obtained before starting the construction work and action will be taken if any lapses are found.”
Officials said the two booths had been lying vacant and the upcoming coffee shop didn’t have any name as of now. Prima facie the renovation work was being carried out without securing the walls and roof of the booths, which caused it to collapse suddenly, they said.
General secretary of the Sector 33-B Resident Welfare Association, Kuljinder Sra alleged that rules were being flouted during the renovation work and no safety measures were in place: “The blame also lies on the authorities for not taking pre-emptive action and waiting for a tragedy to happen,” he added.
While incidents of building collapse are more frequent in Mohali, where a three-storey building had come down in Sector 126 on December 31, 2022, trapping 10 people and killing one, they are rarer in Chandigarh.
First building collapse in Chandigarh in 8 years
Back in December 2015, six people had died and 11 were injured when the roof of a liquor vend had collapsed in the Transport Area of Sector 26.
In June 2014, the four-storey building of National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology in Sector 17 had collapsed after a major fire, killing two people and injuring four.
