3 min readPuneUpdated: Jul 8, 2026 08:33 PM IST
At least 15 people are trapped after a large portion of a three-storeyed building in Pune’s Pimpri-Chinchwad collapsed on Wednesday afternoon, officials have said. The building housed the administrative office of a waste processing facility. A large mound of waste next to the building moved after heavy rains, leading to the collapse, officials said. The building is part of theMoshi garbage depot of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. The entire city’s garbage is segregated, collected and transported to the Moshi depot daily.
Teams from the Army, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the fire department, the police, ambulances and other emergency response agencies have rushed to the spot in Moshi and a rescue operation is underway.
Officials said the structure that collapsed on Wednesday is the administrative building of the Waste-to-Energy project for which the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation entered an agreement with Antony Lara Renewable Energy Limited.
Vijay Suryavanshi, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner, said, “This is the administrative block of the Waste-to-Energy Project of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.” He said the building is located next to a mound of ‘legacy waste’ – untreated solid garbage and industrial byproducts left in old landfills or dumpsites for long periods.
“Due to very heavy rains in the region, a large portion of the mound moved and came down like a landslide on this building,” Suryavanshi said. “There were around 20 people in the building at the time, and four managed to come out. Now, 15-16 people are still inside. We have managed to contact some of them. The NDRF team has reached here and other rescue teams are also here,” he added.
Sanjay Kulkarni, City Engineer with the municipal corporation who also heads the environment department, told The Indian Express. “Four employees on the first floor have been rescued. Fifteen workers were on the ground floor of the building and are trapped. The workers were shouting for help. We alerted the fire brigade and NDRF; they have reached the spot. Rescue work is underway,” he said.
Kiran Gaikwad, another municipal corporation officer who has reached Moshi, said, “We have established contact with the trapped workers. NDRF is carrying out the rescue operation,” he said.
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Seven people have been rescued so far from the debris, while efforts are on for safely rescuing others trapped in the collapse.
“A Joint Task Force of Southern Command, comprising Engineer and Medical personnel, has been deployed to assist in the rescue and relief operations at the building collapse site in Moshi, Pune. The Army team is working in close coordination with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Police, Fire Services and other civil agencies to support the ongoing rescue efforts,” said Ankush Chavan, Public Relations Officer (Defence), Pune
