Maharashtra / 5 dead, 1 critical after lift collapses at construction site in Mumbai

Mumbai: Five people working at a construction site in Lower Parel area died when the lift they had boarded in the under-construction building had a free fall. The police and fire brigade reached the spot and removed the six people trapped in the lift.

NM Joshi Marg police said the incident took place around 5.45pm at a construction site of Lalitambika Builders at erstwhile Ambika Mills compound. “The building is owned by Lalitambika Builders and they had hired a contractor,” said Prataprao Bhosale, senior inspector, NM Joshi Marg police station.

The workers have been identified as Avinash Das, 35; Laxman Mandal, 35; Bharat Mandal, 28; and Chinmay Mandal, 33 while the two others are yet to be identified.

The building is a twenty-storey structure with two towers — one for the people who have been rehabilitated and the other is sale component building.

“They were working near the car parking and were coming down in the lift used to take up construction material. The lift wire snapped and it crashed from the seventeenth floor. The fall was sudden and speedy, due to which five people died at the spot and one person, Laxman Mandal, is critical and has been admitted at KEM Hospital,” said Bhosale.

Shiv Sena leader Sachin Ahir, who visited the spot along with minister and local MLA Aaditya Thackeray, said, “It’s a very unfortunate incident. Locals and other workers rushed the injured to the hospital. However, five of them had already breathed their last.”

The police said the site supervisor has also died in the incident. “We are inquiring into the incident and will record the statements of all people and then register a case in the matter against those found responsible for negligence, if any,” said Bhosale.