In an unfortunate incident, a 5-storey illegal building collapsed in Misal Garhi area in Masuri, Ghaziabad, killing one and injuring eight. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rushed to the site and rescued eight workers, even as rain and water-logged streets tried to hamper their efforts, reports The Indian Express.

#BREAKING: थाना मसूरी क्षेत्र के मिसल गढ़ी में एक निर्माणाधीन 05 मंजिला इमारत गिर गयी है। मौके पर #NDRF और #GhaziabadPolice द्वारा राहत व बचाव कार्य किया जा रहा है। कुछ मजदूरों को निकालकर हॉस्पिटल भेज गया है। अभी तक किसी के मृत होने की कोई सूचना प्राप्त नही है। @Uppolice

— GHAZIABAD POLICE (@ghaziabadpolice) July 22, 2018

#UPDATE: थाना मसूरी के मिसल गढ़ी क्षेत्र के आकाश नगर में निर्माणधीन इमारत गिरने की घटना पर मौके पर #NDRF #GhaziabadPolice टीम द्वारा तेजी से राहत व बचाव कार्य किया जा रहा है। pic.twitter.com/l3f8c4AXMU

— GHAZIABAD POLICE (@ghaziabadpolice) July 22, 2018

Magisterial inquiry

District Magistrate (DM) Ritu Maheshwari, who is also the Vice-Chairperson of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) told ” There is one casualty so far. Seven injured workers were taken out from the debris and sent to a government hospital in Sanjay Nagar. There is no count on the exact number of people trapped under the debris. Rescue operations are underway in full swing. Prima facie, it appears the building collapsed as a poor-quality construction material was used. It also seems the structural design of the building was flawed. Additional district magistrate Sunil Kumar Singh will conduct an inquiry.”

All the eight worked in the construction site which was located in Radhey Krishna Colony, and it is also to be noted that more might be feared trapped in the debris.

Illegal construction

According to the (GDA), the building was being constructed without approval, and the GDA had issued a notice to the Construction company in December 2017, The Hindu reported.

Furthermore, after the notice, the builder stalled work for two months and resumed it without permission. A senior official told the news daily, “The building was scheduled to be demolished by a GDA enforcement team on July 12 but was delayed due to logistics and security reasons,” said a senior official.

The DNA has revealed that police officials had identified the builder as Prasanjeet, who is said to be on the run.

The incident

According to The Hindu, the mishap occurred around 2:30 PM when the construction work was happening. The temporary platform (scaffold) and iron girders came crashing down, injuring all.

The NDRF arrived on the spot soon and their commandant PK Srivastava said, “Apart from the local police, we have roped in three teams comprising 125 personnel to carry out rescue work. Our dog squads have also been deployed. The building collapsed in a pancake style-successive floors till the ground piled upon each other”.

The seriously injured were rushed to GTB hospital, and the rest were admitted in the district hospital. Chief medical officer NK Gupta said, “Three patients, including two minor kids, were referred to GTB Hospital in Delhi. The remaining three are in Sanjay Nagar. The conditions of all three survivors are stable.” It is to be noted that after his statement two more people were rescued from the debris.

Cracks present

One of the survivors Geeta said, “We had complained to the contractor on Sunday morning about the cracks in the columns. However, he brushed aside our complaints. We were transporting sand from the second floor to the fourth floor when all of a sudden the entire structure collapsed.”

Moreover, she was also quoted by Hindustan Times as saying, “Our supervisor, Ram Singh, had told us to repair the cracks in the afternoon. We started work after 2 pm and minutes later the building collapsed”.

First Information Report (FIR) has been registered at Masuri police station, and six people have been taken into custody, Senior Superintendent of Police told The Times of India.

Compensation

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered ex-gratia of Rs 2 Lakh the family of the dead worker and Rs. 50,000 for injured labourers.

NDTV quoted a Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson who said, “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the district magistrate and the senior superintendent of police of Ghaziabad to visit the site of building collapse and take immediate action for rescue, along with NDRF personnel.”

Last week in a similar accident, on July 17, two buildings collapsed in Shahberi village of Greater Noida, killing nine labourers, which also included an infant and two women.

Safety Norms

Model Building Bye-Laws was provided by the Ministry of Urban Development in 2016 which gave certain norms regarding safety in construction sites. These are quoted directly as:

1. Supervision: All construction except load-bearing buildings up to 3-storeys shall be carried out under the supervision of the Construction Engineer on Record (CER) or Construction Management Agency on Record (CMAR) for various seismic zones.
2. Certification of structural safety in construction: CER/ CMAR shall give a certificate of structural safety at the time of completion of construction as per the guidelines mentioned in Form-13 (of the MHA Expert Committee Report)
3. Quality control and inspection: All material and workmanship must be of good quality generally conforming to accepted standards of Public Works Department and Indian standard specification and codes as included in Part-V Building Materials and Part-VII Construction practices and safety of National Building Code of India.

Also Read: 

Delhi: Building Collapsed In 2010 Killed 70, 8 Yrs Later Fine Of Just Rs 21,000 Imposed

Also published on Medium.