Amravati: A concrete beam being cast over a gateway in Rampuri Camp came down with its centering on Tuesday evening, trapping four workers in the debris. Fire brigade personnel and local residents pulled them out and sent them to the district general hospital.
The injured are Md Aifaz (26), Zamir Khan Shamsher Khan (35), Sheikh Muzffar Sheikh Babbu (24) and Sheikh Zamir. Police said all four live within the jurisdiction of Nagpuri Gate police station. Hospital sources said one worker has a serious leg injury and another a head injury. All four are stable and under treatment.
The gateway, about 22 feet high and 20 feet wide, has been under construction for three months at Krishnanagar-Rampuri Camp in ward 7 of the municipal corporation. Both concrete pillars were already standing. On Tuesday, workers began laying the beam that would join them at the top.
Twelve to 15 workers had been filling concrete into the beam since morning. Because the work was 22 feet up, a makeshift platform had been built for them to stand on, and centering had been fixed under the beam. Eyewitnesses among the workers said the whole structure gave way with just five or six buckets of concrete left to pour.
Residents rushed to the spot within minutes. The gateway stands along the main road linking Baba Corner to Vilas Nagar via Rampuri Camp, and traffic was halted there for a while.
Acting on a complaint by corporator Manish Chetan Bajaj, Gadge Nagar police station booked contractors Pankaj Sharma of Railly Plot and Aditya Gupta of Sainagar for negligence. Police said the case was registered under Sections 125(a) and 290 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
In his complaint, Bajaj told police that the debris was wet and had spread across the road, and that he had brought in a JCB to clear it so traffic would not be blocked. Investigation is being supervised by station house officer Gorkhanath Jadhav.
Locally, the work was said to be on a deadline to finish before Guru Nanak Jayanti on November 24. Residents have demanded a detailed inquiry into why the beam fell, and whether the centering and the construction itself were faulty.
No one was killed in the collapse.