NDRF recovers body from debris at building collapse site near Pune

Pune, Jul 9 (PTI) A team from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Thursday recovered a body from the debris of a building that collapsed at a waste management plant in Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune, officials said. Nine persons have been rescued so far in a multi-agency operation underway at the site, they said. A three-storey building located over a waste-to-energy plant at Moshi in the area collapsed after a huge mound of garbage crashed onto it on Wednesday afternoon, trapping around 18 individuals under the rubble. While seven of the victims were pulled out of the debris hours after the accident, two more persons were rescued post midnight, officials said. According to a senior NDRF official, a body was recovered in the morning. “We suspect that 7 to 8 people are still trapped under the debris. We have spotted two persons who are motionless and appear to be seriously injured. We have to remove the debris manually as machines could create vibrations and make it unstable,” the official said. Rajendra Wable, Dean of Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital in Pimpri, said that a man, identified as Bhavesh Wani, was brought to the hospital from the accident. However, doctors declared him dead, he said. A rescue operation is underway to save the remaining victims, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Ganesh Ingale. Employees of Antony Lara Renewable Energy, which operates the 14MW power plant in collaboration with the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, were among those trapped, an official had said on Wednesday. The Pimpri Chinchwad civic body said in a release that 23 persons were initially believed to be trapped under the debris, of whom five managed to come out safely. A rescue operation was subsequently launched to extricate the others. The operation was jointly carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Indian Army, the municipal fire brigade, the fire brigade of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the police administration. Rescue operations were continuing on a war footing to evacuate the remaining people, it added. Moshi Pradhikaran is a planned neighbourhood in the Pimpri-Chinchwad city near Pune. The building stood next to a mountain-like pile of legacy (old) waste. Prima facie, it appears that due to heavy rains, the waste mound became loose and collapsed onto the building like a landslide, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi had said earlier. PTI SPK NR