E-Paper
Two Army jawans killed during bridge construction training at CME; court of inquiry ordered
The incident happened during a routine training exercise on Thursday afternoon.
Two army jawans were killed and at least five others were injured in an accident at the College of Military Engineering (CME) at Dapodi in Pune when the tower of a Bailey suspension bridge collapsed at 11.30am on Thursday.
A Court of Inquiry has been ordered into the incident.
The deceased have been identified as Naik Bhiwai Khandu Waghmode (28), a resident of Daund and Sanjivan PK (29) , a resident of Kerala. Two of the critically injured jawans have been identified as DC Sharma and Sonu Kumar, both of whom are recuperating in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Military Hospital (MH) in Khadki.
The incident happened during a routine training exercise on Thursday afternoon when the unit was training on a mobile Bailey bridge when one of the towers collapsed. Known to be a premier technical training institution of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army, CME trains officers and jawans of the Army, services, other defence bodies and friendly foreign countries in engineering and technical subjects.
The Southern Command in a statement said, “On December 26, troops were undergoing training at College of Military Engineering (CME), Pune. During the training of bridge construction, the tower support collapsed and six-seven troops got injured and were immediately shifted to the Military Hospital (MH), Kirkee / Command Hospital (CH), Pune. Lance Havildar Sanjivan PK and Naik Waghmode BK sustained serious injuries and lost their lives during the treatment.”
The next of kin (NOK) of the deceased soldiers have been informed, the statement added. They were practicing how to launch the Bailey suspension bridge as part of their training curriculum when one of the bridge towers collapsed.
The injured have been identified as Major Surjeet Singh, Subedar P Shanmugam, Naik Gore BP, Naik Sharad Khole, Naik DC Sharma, Naik Devendra Singh Bisht, Havaldar Paramjit Singh, Naik Gurpit Singh and Naik Mandeep Singh. Police inspector Shankar Awtade, said “The incident took place in the military area and investigation is done by the military authorities who will later share copies of their documents with us with regards to the incident. We have lodged an accidental death related case in our police station records ,” he said.
