2 NBCC Project Managers Among 9 Booked, DM Orders Probe To Find Out When Lift Was Serviced Last
Lucknow: A construction lift taking nine workers to the upper floors of a residential tower on Friday morning crashed to the ground from the 14th floor, leaving four of them dead and five others on ventilator support.
The lift collapse — one of the worst construction site accidents in recent memory — was reported at Amrapali Dream Valley Phase 2 in Techzone 4 around 8.30am when workers were starting their day. Police said there were around 7,000 workers at the site.
An FIR was registered against eight persons and the private company building the flats on behalf of the state-run NBCC, which is completing Amrapali projects under a Supreme Court-monitored exercise. The FIR mentions two project managers of NBCC, the lift company’s supervisor, the site in-charge, contractors and others.
At the site, Shareef and other workers said they were stunned by a deafening thud and a series of shrieks. “When we looked in the direction of the noises, all we could see was a cloud of dust. The workers had just reported for duty,” he said. “Five of them were not moving at all. There was blood all around.”
A team from Bisrakh police station reached the site after getting a call around 9am. “Nine workers had taken the lift to go to the 20th floor of Tower C-10. The lift was moving freely until it reached the 14th floor. It got stuck for a few seconds, and then collapsed. Senior police officers and administration officials reached the site,” said Suniti, DCP (central Noida).
The nine workers who had taken the lift were from Bihar and UP. Ishtaaq Ali (23), Arun Mandal (40) and Vipot Mandal (45) of Bihar and Aaris Khan (22) of UP’s Amroha succumbed to injuries at the District Hospital in Sector 30. Asul and Abdul Mustakeem of Bihar and Kuldeep, Kaif and Arbaaz Ali from various districts of UP are in intensive care.
Renu Agarwal, the chief medical superintendent of the hospital, said the five injured workers were critical. “Most of them have head injuries. We will have to keep them under observation for at least 24 hours,” she said.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath offered his condolences to the workers’ families and asked officials to ensure that the injured got proper treatment.
Atul Kumar, additional district magistrate (finance and revenue), said, “The families of the four workers who died will get compensation of Rs 25 lakh each — Rs 20 lakh by NBCC and Rs 5 lakh by the court receiver monitoring the project. They will also take care of the medical expenses of the injured workers.”
District magistrate Manish Verma said an investigation had been ordered to find out why the lift malfunctioned and its last date of servicing.
Police commissioner Laxmi Singh said a case had been registered at Bisrakh police station under sections 304 (provides punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 337 (injury due to negligence), 338 (grievous hurt due to negligence), 287 (negligence related to machinery) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC and under provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment (CLA) Act.
All workers, Singh said, have been asked to leave the site. “A preliminary probe points to lack of safety protocols at the site,” she added.
Launched in 2010, the Amrapali project will have 9,000 flats when it is ready. The buyers, officials said, are supposed to get possession over the next few months.
