Two construction workers were killed on the spot and 12 others left injured after a portion of the roof of an under-construction multi-level car park building collapsed on Friday at the APMC premises in RMC Yard near Yeswanthpur.The third floor roof collapsed when the labourers were busy working. While the reason for the mishap is yet to be known, police are not ruling out sub-standard quality of work. Umashankar, an engineer, was arrested soon after the incident came to light. The deceased are Rahul Goswami (23) from West Bengal, and Rakesh (21) from Bihar.
The injured identified so far are Omprakash, Girij, Abdul Amed, Chotu Buiah, Sham Goswami, Nasir Shek, from Bihar and West Bengal, and Devraj, Hanumanth, Doddappa and Siddaraju from Yadagir in Kalaburagi district. They are recovering in a private hospital. Police said that the incident occurred around 4.30 am with more than 30 workers present, when a portion of the roof collapsed on them. Some of them jumped to escape the falling debris.
Rahul and Rakesh, however, were killed on the spot. Fire and emergency personnel rushed to the spot and rescued those injured immediately. The APMC had given the contract to a private builder — Star Construction — to build the car park, police said, adding that the support structure on the third floor collapsed along with concrete, which led to the mishap. A case of negligence has been filed against the construction company, and the engineer and contractor have been booked.
Siddaraju, one of the injured, said, “Some were on the second floor while few were on third when the incident occurred.It is said that APMC had given `22 crore to the builder to construct the parking lot in 24 months. Police are verifying if the contractor had taken permission to allow labourers to work at night, and experts have inspected the spot to submit a report.
No system to check dilapidated buildings
BENGALURU: Every year, two to three buildings collapse in Bengaluru, some being buildings that are under construction, while others are old. However, BBMP does not have any system in place to avoid such accidents. There are 22 lakh buildings in BBMP limits, of which five lakh are commercial complexes and shops.
There are also many buildings that are under construction, but BBMP is either unable to check the quality of work, or work hand-in-glove with the contractors. In 2013-14, BBMP had done a rough survey and identified 62 weak buildings, of which 48 are in the core areas of the city.
Only 41 of them were issued notices while six were razed. A senior official, on condition of anonymity, said, “There are thousands of buildings in core areas that were constructed some 60-70 years ago. But residents are unwilling to vacate. Some even got stay orders from courts.’’ BBMP engineer-in-chief MR Venkatesh said that since it’s election time, they cannot do much.
Stability certificate must
R Prasad, BBMP Additional Director (Town Planning), said that buildings must be constructed as per National Building Code guidelines. The builder has to take a No Objection Certificate from concerned authorities before work starts. After work is completed, the structural engineer has to give a stability certificate, only then is an occupancy certificate issued.”