MUMBAI: A 50-year-old migrant mason was killed and five others injured after a makeshift platform collapsed at an under-construction building in Subhash Nagar, Chembur, on Saturday morning.
The incident occurred at around 10 am at Building No 36, where eight workers were constructing a car lift on the sixth floor of a building by the Adityaraj Group. According to eyewitness Soni Devi, the sister-in-law of one of the workers, the ‘pranchi’, a temporary platform comprising a metal surface overlaid with plywood, bent and snapped under the weight of the concrete slabs meant for the lift, sending six of the eight workers plunging downwards.
The deceased was identified as Desapogu Ramanjaneyulu, a native of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. Ramanjaneyulu moved to Mumbai 35 years ago with his father, who had worked with the Adityaraj Group since its inception in 1967, and rose from being a daily wage labourer to a mason. He is survived by his wife and four daughters.
The injured were rushed to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar.
“The collapse happened in a split second. Some of us tried to hold on to the wall we were building, clutching concrete blocks,” said Sandeep Kumar, 18, one of the injured. Sandeep and Ramesh Kumar, 19, both came from Dumka in Jharkhand only 15 days earlier. Both are in the trauma ward of Rajawadi Hospital and stable. “There was a safety net on the fifth floor,” said Sandeep. “It broke the impact of the fall, otherwise none of us would have survived.”
Gunadhar Rai, 22, sustained severe injuries to his left leg and was brought in gasping, medical staffers said. Doctors said his condition remains critical pending a CT scan and that he faces the risk of paralysis below the neck if the spinal injury is confirmed. Kush Rai, 30, also sustained serious injuries. Gunadhar and Kush are from the same village in Jharkhand.
Vijay Prasad, a worker from Uttar Pradesh, suffered injuries that led to the amputation of his left leg. Prasad and Rai were later shifted to Sion Hospital, as Rajawadi did not have the requisite facilities to manage the extent of their injuries, hospital staffers said.
DCP Sameer Shaikh of Zone VI said that the police were in the process of registering an offence. “We are checking documents and fixing responsibility, after which the offence will be registered,” he said. The police officer corroborated that the builder had provided a safety net—however, only four workers were caught by it and two fell directly, one to the ground and the other on the fifth floor.