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Delhi storms cause mobile tower collapse at Safdarjung Enclave
The incident, however, led to safety concerns among the residents’ welfare association, which alleged that a lack of structural safety was not heeded to by civic authorities
The brief spell of thunderstorm on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday led to the collapse of a 100-foot-high mobile tower in south Delhi’s Safdarjung Enclave, but no injury or casualty was recorded as the incident took place at around 4am, when the road had a scarce footfall, officials and residents said.
The incident, however, led to safety concerns among the residents’ welfare association, which alleged that a lack of structural safety was not heeded to by civic authorities.
Pankaj Agarwal, of Safdarjung Enclave and a convener of NCR RWAs, said: “We have been objecting to the tower from the very day it was installed as a drain passed under the site compromising the structural safety. But our objections were not heeded to.”
He blamed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for “unilaterally installing the tower”. However, MCD did not comment on the matter despite repeated attempts by HT.
A senior police official said they received a PCR call, informing them that a tower had fallen near MCD Park in B-2 of Safdarjung Enclave.
“During enquiry, it was found that the tower belongs to the NET TELL company. The mobile tower fell at around 4am due to a heavy rainstorm and strong winds. As the mobile tower was around 100 ft long, while falling, it struck BSES wires, resulting in damage to electric poles and wires, and also caused some trees to break. No one was injured in this incident. Further enquiry revealed that the mobile tower had been installed around one month ago with the permission of MCD. Accordingly, the concerned officials of MCD, BSES, DFS Department, and NET TELL Company were informed. The staff of the mobile tower company dismantled the tower into pieces and cleared the service lane,” police said in a statement.
Over 100 trees damaged
The squalls also caused large-scale tree damage across Delhi.
In its report, the New Delhi Municipal Council said 16 cases of tree felling were reported on Prithviraj Road, Lodhi Road, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Gandhi Sadan, Mandir Marg, and Ferozshah Road, among other places. In NDMC areas, damage to electricity wires led to outages in 12 locations.
A Public Works Department (PWD) official said 107 complaints were received by the control room till 7pm on Sunday and more than 90 such complaints pertained to uprooted trees, damaged branches and leaning trees obstructing traffic flow. “Many of these complaints have been received from traffic police, MCD and DM office. Our teams have cleared the sites obstructing traffic in the early hours,” the official said.
