8 Hurt in Collapse of Under-Construction Flyover at Bairamalguda

HYDERABAD: An under-construction section of a deck ramp of a flyover at Sagar Ring Road in Bairamalguda collapsed in the early hours of Wednesday, heavily injuring two construction workers, besides causing minor injuries to six others.

All eight injured persons were admitted to KIMS in LB Nagar, with the two seriously injured identified as Rohit Kumar, 25, and Puneeth Kumar, 26, who are cousins.

The police said that the incident took place at 3.10 am, when the workers were working on a nine-metre section of centring rods of the deck ramp when it caved in at a height of 15 feet.

“There were eight workers patching up RCC concrete on the top. After the centring rods of the basement of the deck ramp caved, in the two fell into debris along with the construction material,” P. Sreedhar Reddy, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), LB Nagar Police, said.

The flyover is a part of the Strategic Road Development Plan (SDRP) project of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), according to which the under-construction will connect the Bairamalguda Cheruvu Junction near LB Nagar with the Sagar Ring Road.

Sources said that the soil was loose due to the proximity of the location to the Bairamalguda Cheruvu, which led to the supporting structure leading to the deck ramp caving in. Engineering experts from the authorities concerned visited the spot and collected samples of the material soil and steel for a comprehensive probe, they said.

The LB Nagar police registered a case under Section 337 (endangering human life due to negligence) of the IPC against Bollineni Srinidhi Constructions Private Limited (BSCPL) and are investigating the reasons behind the incident.

Puneeth Kumar, one of the injured workers, said: “We laid the RCC concrete rods at 1.30 am, we were patching and filling concrete on the deck ramp between the iron roads when my coworker Vikey shouted that the portion on which we were working was vibrating. He shouted ‘yaar lagta hai bhukamp hai (hey, it feels like an earthquake)’ but we hardly had time to react and all of a sudden, the portion caved in.”

“My cousin Rohit and I suffered internal wounds and bleeding injuries, and fell unconscious. When we gained consciousness, we were being rescued by men dressed in khaki and blue dress, wearing yellow caps,” he said.

In the aftermath of the incident, the police arranged a JCB to lift the debris and the GHMC DRF team rescued the victims, rushed them to a local hospital in police vehicles and ambulances and then shifted them to KIMS, where they are going treatment, police said.

The other injured persons were identified as Shankar Lal (25), Ravi Kumar (27), Jittu Kumar (25) and Hareram, (23), all construction workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. A site engineer, G. Krishna, was also injured, while the eighth injured person, who was treated at the outpatient ward, is yet to be identified, the police said.

A traffic police officer posted at the spot said: “Luckily, the incident took place during the night as the entire flyover and SNDP works are operational only during nights. If the incident would have taken place during peak hours, the situation would have been worse.”

Following the incident, minister K.T. Rama Rao visited KIMS, enquired with the hospital about the workers’ conditions and assured support to all victims for a speedy recovery.

Rachakonda police commissioner D.S. Chauhan also visited the spot and the hospital, interacted with the victims and instructed officials on the investigation process.

LB Nagar MLA Sudheer Reddy was also spotted at the hospital, interacting with the victims and enquiring with the authorities concerned about the incident and their health.