Hyderabad
Two construction workers were killed on Saturday when a lift carrying them collapsed from the 16th floor to the ground due to a technical snag at Vijayawada Thermal Power Station (VTPS) at Ibrahimpatnam on the outskirts of Vijayawada city in Andhra Pradesh’s NTR district, the police said.
The deceased were identified as Jitender Singh (23) and Chotu Singh (23), both from Jharkhand. “We have booked a case under section 174 (death by accident) of Criminal Procedure Code. We shall change the sections, if necessary, if the investigation reveals any other reason,” Ibrahimpatnam police inspector P Srinu told HT.
According to the inspector, the incident happened at around 8.45 am, when a group of 20 workers boarded the lift of a 16-storeyed building under construction on the VTPS premises to take part in the construction work.
“As the lift was going up, it got stuck up midway suddenly and the door was locked automatically. The workers alerted the other technical staff, who tried to open it manually, but they did not succeed,” he said.
After some time, they managed to open it forcibly using iron rods and 18 of the 20 workers could come out one after the other. “While the remaining two were trying to come out, the doors suddenly got closed automatically and the lift went up to the 18th floor at a high speed and collapsed to the ground from there with a loud sound,” Srinu said.
The workers, who ran away from the spot in panic, returned only to find two of their colleagues dead in the lift chamber. “The lift collapsed to the ground, apparently due to snapping of the cable. We are yet to find out the reason for the same,” the inspector said, adding that investigation was on.
Another eight workers who were standing close to the lift also received injuries and they were shifted to the VTPS board hospital for treatment. Their condition is stable. The bodies were shifted to the same hospital for autopsy, the inspector added.
