Five killed at construction site

www.mangaloretoday.com

Bangalore, June 30, 2011: Five plant and machinery staff working at DLF’s Southern Homes Private Limited were killed when an upraised platform at a construction site they were working on plunged 150 feet, at Begur near here on Thursday evening.

Avatar Singh, Vikram Singh, Baljeet Singh, Srikanth and Amarnath, all aged between 25-30 years fell to their death when they were increasing the height of the tower crane, operating at C Block of the under-construction 4,000-home apartment complex.

While the crane remained intact even after the accident, the platform on which the workers were working, came crashing down from a height of about 150 feet, killing four on the spot. Amarnath died at a private hospital later.

K K Viru, a labourer atta­ched to the project civil engineer, explained: “This is an exercise that is done every time we need to increase the crane to match the height of the bu­ilding so as to be able to transfer materials. The incident occurred when the guard pins of the platform they were standing on snapped.” Another employee, refusing to divulge his name, said there were not enough safety procedures in place at the site. “If they had the safety belts buckled on they would not have met with such a horrible death,” he lamented.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Karnataka State Labourers’ Welfare Trust State President D C Pappanna said: “All the labourers working at the site will go on a protest Friday seeking the company to put in place adequate saftey measures.”

All the five bodies were transferred to Fortis Hospital on Bannerghatta Road, where another person, Praveen Bhosle, is battling for life in the ICU.

The police have registered a negligence case against DLF, in the backdrop of the incident.

While the company was not available for comment directly, DLF Senior Executive Director (South) J K Subrahmanian,  in a statement: “DLF regrets the unfortunate mishap which occurred at its site at Begur, resulting in the tragic loss of lives of its contractors’ employees.”

He added that the company will provide the kin of the dead an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh immediately, and that it will pay Rs 2.5 lakh to the injured person, whose medical expenses will be borne by the company.