CUTTACK: A day after three persons were killed and two others critically injured when a concrete slab fell on them during construction of a bridge along Kathajodi river, two probe panels constituted at the district and state level on Sunday began investigation into the matter.
Cuttack collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde said the three-member district-level probe panel is being headed by sub-collector Dibyajyoti Smruti Ranjan Deo. “Though the site comes under the jurisdiction of the Roads & Building Division-I, superintendent of Roads and Building Division-II Jyoti Ranjan Pati has been included in the panel for transparency in the probe. This apart, district labour officer (Enforcement) Prasanna Kumar Pradhan is also a part of the panel,” he added.
Shinde said that apart from ascertaining the circumstances under which the mishap occurred, the probe panel will also find out if there was any violation of the labour code and safety measures, beside technical glitches. “Necessary action will be taken after receiving report from the panel,” the collector added.
Similarly, the three-member state-level probe panel headed by special secretary-cum-EIC, Works department, Laxmikant Padhi also inspected the mishap site and recorded statements of workers and other staff of the construction company. It has been directed to submit a report in this connection within 15 days.
Meanwhile, the bodies of the deceased persons were handed over to their respective families after postmortem. Of the two injured persons who were undergoing treatment at SCB medical college and hospital (MCH), one has been discharged while the other has undergone surgery.
The project for the six-lane road conversion from Kathajodi riverside of NH-16 to CNBT of the Works department worth Rs 121 crore was being carried out on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode by Bhubaneswar-based RKD Construction Pvt Ltd under the supervision of Sai Chaitanya Project Consultancy Limited.
The incident occurred at around 5.45 pm on Saturday while the site engineer and workers were engaged in lifting of the readymade concrete slab for setting it on the pillars with the help of two parallel cranes. The hoisting wire of one crane got suddenly detached as a result of which the slab collapsed on the crane and came crashing on the site engineer and four labourers. They were rushed to SCB MCH where doctors declared three of them dead. Works minister Prithiviraj Harichandan had visited the injured at the hospital.