Wall collapse at Gurugram construction site leaves worker dead, three injured

Incident took place during evening work hours when a 20–25 ft wall gave way; police say probe will depend on complaints by victims’ families.

A 22-year-old construction worker died and three others were injured after a retention wall of a basement collapsed, triggering a soil cave-in at a construction site in Block-E of Sector 56 on Monday evening, police said.

Fire and civil defence teams reached within minutes, dug through debris for 20 minutes and completed rescue by night, officials said. (HT)

The deceased was identified as Badal Kumar, 22, police said, adding the injured were Govind Kumar, 24, Roshan Kumar, 25, and Sagar, 23, all originally from Bihar.

According to police, the incident took place between 6.30pm and 6.40pm when workers were engaged in construction work in the basement of a site where a residential building is coming up.

Inspector Manoj Kumar, station house officer of Sector 56 police station, said a major portion of the basement’s retention wall, measuring about 20 to 25 feet, suddenly collapsed on the workers. “It also resulted in the soil cave-in that buried four men at the spot,” he said.

Police, fire department, and civil defence personnel were rushed to the site soon after the administration received information about the incident to carry out rescue operations.

Kumar said all four workers were pulled out from the debris and rushed to the civil hospital in Sector-10 in ambulances. Badal was pronounced dead on arrival, he added. “Rest three are undergoing treatment and their conditions are reported to be stable. It was yet unclear if any negligence resulted in the incident,” Kumar said.

Fire department officials said they received a rescue call at the Sector 29 fire station at 6.47pm, following which a team of firefighters was pressed into action. “They along with the civil defence personnel removed the debris using shovels and pulled out all four injured workers after 15 to 20 minutes of digging work,” a fire department official said, adding that the team finally returned from the spot at 8.25pm.

Police officials said that further legal action against the contractor or the property owner would be initiated only after receiving a complaint from the family of the deceased or the injured workers.