8 injured as tech park building partially collapses in Whitefield

Times News Network

Bengaluru: Eight labourers from Odisha were injured after an under-construction three-storey building partially collapsed in a tech park in Whitefield on Sunday morning.

The centering sheets erected to lay concrete for the terrace of the second floor of the building caved in at 6am. The workers were laying concrete at the time of the incident. Construction had been going on at DivyaSree Technopark in Kundalahalli, Whitefield, for the past few months. The technopark houses several IT majors.

Two of the workers, Badhri, 20 and Heralal, 45, suffered head injuries; they are said to be out of danger. Pradeep, 25, Sushant, 19, Bappi, 23, Jogesh, 25, Ganashyam and Matti, 25, were discharged.

Jogesh, who registered the complaint, said the centering sheets couldn’t sustain the boad as concrete was being laid. Once the sheets collapsed, the entire centering structure came down, hurtling him and others to the ground. They have been working in Bengaluru for the past three years, two of them at DivyaSree Technopark.

The fire and emergency services said they received no calls but a police officer said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was called because of the nature of the accident.

Five workers were first pulled out of the debris and taken to hospital. They had sustained minor injuries and were discharged. Later, three more were rescued and taken to the hospital.

A case has been registered against technopark officials who were undertaking the work. As per the complaint, the incident occurred R 6am, however, the local corporator alleged it was at 4am and any construction between 6pm and 6am is illegal.

Police have named the project engineer and safety engineer of the construction site in the FIR.

Second incident in recent past

The building collapse in Whitefield is the second such incident in the recent past in south-east Bengaluru. In October 2016, a five-storey building collapsed in Bellandur, killing six labourers and injuring many.

Investigations revealed that the property owner had violated the sanctioned plan -- which was for ground-plus-two floors - and built additional floors. Though the plot area is 1,900 sqft, the built-up area was 4,300 sqft. The soil-bearing capacity was not tested properly to start with. Even when raising columns for the top floors, building code norms were not followed, according to BBMP officials.

Corporator promises action

It looks like the incident is a result of negligence on part of construction engineers. We came to know that work was on during night hours as well, which is a violation and threat to the health of labourers. Apart from police investigation, we have registered a complaint from the BBMP side as well. Our engineers will investigate what exactly led to the accident and take action

Shwetha Vijaykumar, corporator of Doddanekkundi, Mahadevapura zone