Wall collapse kills three labourers

Three labourers were killed when a wall collapsed in the basement of an under-construction hospital in southwest Delhi's Dwarka on Friday.

Victims Jitendra, 26, Santosh, 25, and Gulzar, 21 were working at the site of the Human Care Medical Charitable Hospital in Dwarka Sector-6 when the mishap took place around noon. A part of the temporary eight-feet high wall, which surrounded the mishap site, collapsed on them, police said.

“A makeshift wall had been built to keep the mud from collapsing there. But that gave way,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South West) R A Sanjeev. The wall collapse also led to mud sliding down into the basement.

The labourers trapped under the debris, were rescued after a joint operation by police, fire department, National Disaster Response Force and North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

They were taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where the three of them were declared brought dead.

Another labourer named Ali Hasan, 22, is admitted in the ICU with serious head injuries. Labourers and eyewitnesses told police that many more were injured, but they managed to emerge from the debris before the arrival of the rescue teams. The rescue operations continued till late in the day as heaps of mud had to be removed using cranes.

Police registered a case under sections 288 (negligent conduct with respect to repairing buildings) and 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code against the construction company and its engineers.

Nidhi Builders which is in charge of the project was involved in the construction of Hotel Le Meridien in central Delhi’s Janpath in the early 1980s. Police have questioned the contractor and other labourers  to ascertain the exact sequence of events.

It is alleged that police and the fire department were informed only after the construction company failed in their attempt to rescue the labourers.

Police said they were informed more than 30 minutes after the incident occurred. “Lives could have been saved if the initial rescue operation was also conducted by professionals,” said a police officer.
North Delhi Municipal Corporation has also ordered an enquiry.

Police have informed the families of the deceased, who hail from Bihar. “We have preserved the bodies for post-mortem, which will be conducted after their families arrive in the capital,” Sanjeev added. The planned 300 bed super-specialty hospital would be spread across six acres.