Seven injured as slab of under construction building collapses

Visakhapatnam: Seven people were injured after a cement concrete slab, which was laid to construct a five-floor multiplex and shopping complex, collapsed here at Chaitanya Nagar in the wee hours of Friday on the National highway near Gajuwaka junction in the city.

The injured are identified as L Lakshmi Narayana, K Dinesh Yadav, M Apparao, T Rama Krishna, T Narayana, M Rambabu and M Yadav and they were working in the night shifts on the first floor of the under- construction building. The injured workers are the residents of various places in Visakhapatnam.

According to GVMC-V Zonal Commissioner Chakradhar Rao, the building owner had acquired permission to construct a five-storey building through offline service from the department. The accident occurred due to lack of proper precautions in centering works.

The support logs were inappropriately laid for the second floor for which the slab was laid on Thursday night. The workers went to the first floor around 4.00 a.m on Friday to clear the rubbish. The centering supports were disturbed during rubbish clearance and the slab which was laid on Thursday collapsed suddenly. The seven workers who were on first floor sustained injuries.

The injured workers were shifted to RK hospital in the local area. The doctors said two workers were injured severely and the condition of the rest of the workers was stable.

The Zonal Commissioner, GVMC directed the town planning officials to check the safety measures taken up by the contractor in the work place. Responding on the incident, Tahasildar of Gajuwaka Chetan Kumar said that the contractor informed that the injured workers have an insurance of Rs 2 lakh.

Meanwhile a heavy hoarding which belongs to CMR Group has been removed from the workplace after the accident, the Tahasildar said. He also added that one worker was injured severely after his leg was struck under the slab, was now undergoing a surgery in RK hospital at Gajuwaka.