PUNE: The rescue teams on Sunday recovered one more body from the debris of the administrative building at the PCMC’s waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Moshi, taking up the death toll to nine.One person remained missing, more than 79 hours after the building collapsed. Rescue teams continued their search operations to trace him till late in the night. One body was recovered on Thursday.The families of victims saw their last hopes of a miracle fade on Saturday, when rescue teams recovered all seven victims dead. Company workers, housekeeping staff, drivers assigned to senior officials, and company executives, including HR and administrative personnel, were among those dead.The administrative building of WTE plant collapsed around 1. 30pm on Wednesday after a 25-30 metre-high garbage mound, a legacy waste of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), allegedly gave way following heavy rain and crashed into the structure.Mahendra Ananthula, the president of Antony Waste Handling Cell Ltd, which operates the plant under a public-private partnership (PPP) mode, told reporters on Saturday, “It was an act of God. The incident occurred because of the extremely heavy rainfall.”A total of 23 people were initially trapped beneath the debris. Five people on the second floor were flung clear as the three-storied building tilted. Rescue teams comprising personnel from the NDRF, Indian Army, and the fire departments of the PCMC and PMRDA pulled out nine others alive by midnight.Three of the rescued people suffered serious but not life threatening injuries and were admitted to hospital. The rest suffered minor injuries and were discharged after treatment.PCMC chief Vijay Suryawanshi said, “All those trapped inside the administrative building have now been retrieved. Unfortunately, everyone recovered from the building on Saturday was found dead. They were trapped beneath pillars, beams or concrete slabs after the structure collapsed.”He said, “One person is still believed to be trapped beneath the garbage outside the building while walking in the area at the time of the incident. We have shifted all our machinery to that location and the search operation is continuing.”Suryawanshi said it was an extremely complex operation. The rescue personnel put their own lives at risk to rescue those trapped beneath the debris, he added.Deputy commandant of NDRF 5th Battalion Ashok Kumar said, “The building suffered a pancake collapse, causing the beams and columns to collapse onto one another. The victims were trapped between these structural elements. Continuous rain in the initial stages also hampered the rescue operation. In addition, the huge volume of garbage left very little access to the site, making it necessary to deploy heavy machinery to reach the collapsed structure.”Kumar said they used a canine squad and other advanced equipment to locate and rescue survivors. Two NDRF teams, comprising around 90 personnel, were deployed round the clock for the rescue operation.While the company has announced compensation of Rs25 lakh for the family of each victim killed in the incident, the municipal corporation has declared a compensation of Rs10 lakh. The state govt will provide Rs5 lakh each to the kin of the victims.The rescue operation was slowed by the huge volume of garbage piled up on three sides of the building, the emission of toxic gases from the waste and the unstable structure. Rescue teams first had to remove nearly 70 feet of accumulated garbage, create access for heavy machinery to reach the cantilevered portion of the collapsed building and then carefully demolish the structure in phases to reach those trapped beneath the debris.Deputy chief minister and Pune guardian minister Sunetra Pawar visited the site on Saturday and said the families’ anxiety and emotional distress were understandable, but the presence of toxic gases emanating from the garbage, along with other operational challenges, had made the rescue operation slow and extremely difficult.“It was natural for the families to want the rescue operation to conclude as quickly as possible. But the garbage was generating gas and there were several other challenges at the site, which made the operation more difficult and time-consuming,” she said.Sunetra said the government would ensure a thorough inquiry into the incident. “Nobody found responsible for negligence will be spared,” she said.Ananthula, the group president of Antony Waste, said the company would bear the medical expenses of the injured. The company assured employment to one member of each victim’s family killed in the cave-in and would bear the education expenses of their children. “In addition, each victim’s family will receive financial assistance of Rs25 lakh from the company’s contribution and group insurance,” he said.Update: The missing person body has been recovered. Toll is now 9.
