Pune : In a tragic incident, nine workers at an under construction Park Xpress luxurious housing project in Baner died after slab collapsed on the illegal 13th floor of the building. Two workers have sustained grievous injuries.
The incident took place around 11 am on Friday. Another worker had died at the same construction site few days, local residents said.
After the incident, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) issued a stop work notice to the builder Pride Purple group and architect.
According to PMC officials, the builder had revised the layout plan several times in the last about 10 years and the final plans were sanctioned in 2015. Initially it had planned construction on 17,000 sq ft area and last year it was revised to 60,500 in December 2015. The developer was given permission for only 12 floors, while the incident took place during illegal construction of the 13th floor when workers were engaged in slab casting. The slab collapsed and buried them.
The incident took place around 11 am and Fire Brigade reached the spot around 11.27 am. It scanned the whole area removed the bodies buried under the debris.
Officials from Pune city police’s Chatushrungi police station are investigating the case.
The deceased persons have been identified as Sarvan Opidar Saha (32), Arun Shivkumar Singh (22), Munna Bhanu Paswan (23), Shambhu Borhan Saha (35), Vijay Ramanand Paswan (22), Karan Devendra Saha (23), Vasant Ghanori Saha (25), Bipin Jaykumar Thakur (20), Tufan Borhan Saha (23). There are all natives of Samstipur and Begusarai districts of Bihar.
Pune municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar said, “The incident took place when the builder was illegally constructing the 13th floor. We will take strict action in this regard. Meanwhile the construction work of the builder has been stopped”.
On the other hand, builder says that there was no illegality in the construction work. “Earlier in 2011, they had sanctioned construction till 12th floor. PMC had inspected the site and was in the process of sanctioning 13th and 14th floor. Therefore no illegal construction was going on at the site. It was an accident which could have happened on any other floor also. We will pay Rs 2 lakh compensation for each deceased worker. The contractor is responsible following safety norms. There has been no such incident at the site in the past”, said Rajesh Narang, vice president, sales and marketing, Pride Purple Group.
