Another body recovered as toll climbs to 19, officials say figure could exceed 30; special demolition machinery expected late Tuesday night
TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CANACONA: Mindful of two adjoining buildings lying in a precarious state, rescue operations which were grounded on Monday afternoon resumed in a limited way at Chaudi-Canacona on Tuesday, as the NDRF team avoided heavy machinery and managed to retrieve yet another body from the debris.
PWD Minister Dhavalikar, who supervised recovery operations at the site, has stated that most recovery operations will be completed within 48 hours with the arrival of specialised demolition machinery from Pune by Tuesday midnight.
Officials told Herald that 19 bodies have been recovered so far, but added that the fatalities could exceed 30 when the rubble is cleared from the collapsed building of Ruby Residency.
The body of a worker was retrieved from the staircase of the collapsed building, as 30 personnel from PWD were also deputed in three teams to work round the clock to assist the NDRF personnel engaged in rescue operations.
“The manual work to clear the debris as well as recovery operations resumed from 2.30 pm without use of any machinery, especially those likely to cause heavy vibrations,” said PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar, who was personally supervising the rescue work from a safe distance.
Following criticism that authorities were yet to provide the identities of the deceased and injured, a list of 17 dead persons, 16 injured persons and 15 missing persons were released to the media persons.
Dhavalikar, who was reportedly out of station when the building collapsed on Saturday, arrived in the State on Monday night and rushed to Chaudi-Canacona at 8.30 am on Tuesday, where he chaired a high-level meeting with technical experts and other officers at the site.
A decision was taken at the meeting to resume manual rescue operations and to avoid the use of heavy machinery to avoid any untoward incident to the adjacent buildings, as top priority was accorded to trace and remove workers buried under the debris.
Meanwhile, two experts from national agencies arrived in the State to monitor and supervise rescue operations at Chaudi. While the New Delhi-based National Disaster Management Authority Incident Response System Specialist Binay Bhushan Ghatnayak visited the site on Tuesday, a specialist on disaster management Prasad Rao reached the site on Tuesday evening.
The State government has also decided to seek services of the specialized demolition squad from Mumbai to bring down the two adjacent buildings posing a threat to recovery operations.
“Shriram D Matte of Matte & Associates from Mumbai personally inspected the two buildings and gave a presentation on the demolition of the two buildings, while offering to provide the services to the government. Accordingly, a Volvo poclain crushing machine, which has a capacity to lift as much as 30 tonnes from a height of 12.15 metres has left from Pune and is expected to arrive sometime after Tuesday midnight,” Dhavlikar said.
The PWD minister explained that the advanced machine has the capacity to crush concrete into powder and lift it without causing damages to surrounding portions.
“The demolition squad has the capacity to clear the buildings within 24 hours and as such most of the rescue operations will be completed within the next 48 hours from today, including the time needed to bring this machinery from Pune to Canacona,” Dhavalikar added.
When a reporter asked for the estimated cost to hire a specialized demolition party, Dhavlikar shot back: “Cost is never criteria for the government when it comes to human lives.”
Meanwhile, the Jharkhand Principal Secretary Disaster Management Arun Kumar Singh and Jharkhand Disaster Management, Col Sanjay Srivastav, visited the site to take stock of the situation and to enquire about the wellbeing of the Jharkhand workers employed at the site.
Sesa Sterlite Ltd Business Manager Joseph Coelho along with his team arrived in the morning and began their research to assist the rescue teams.
Explosives Deltech Energies Ltd Mahesh A Bongale, also visited the site, while Goa Engineering College Civil Engineering HOD Dr Gupta and his team also conducted inspections of the materials used at the construction site and took samples for testing purpose.
“The GEC will submit a report within the next two days on the quality of the Ruby Residency buildings, including the ones that were presently being occupied,” said Dhavalikar.
Asked if the people will be vacated from these buildings, Dhavalikar informed that a decision will be taken on the sustainability of all the residential buildings at the Ruby Residency complex, only on receipt of the GEC report.
“We (government) are very concerned about the safety of all people residing here and we are equally concerned because our own minister (Tawadkar) is also one of the residents,” he said.
Earlier, speaking to reporters in Panjim, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar stated that two senior officials from the Jharkhand government are in the State to take possession of the bodies of labourers hailing from Jharkhand.
“The South Goa district administration has made arrangements to transport the bodies, while the cost of transportation would be borne by the Jharkhand government,” Parrikar said.
