Twenty people were killed and five injured when a part of a wall at a construction site at Kuthari village near Taloje in Navi Mumbai collapsed at about 1.15 pm on Saturday. The victims include two children aged two and three and a pregnant woman. The injured were rushed to government hospitals in Kamothe, Vashi and Panvel. According to the police, labourers at the warehouse construction site got trapped under a 15 feet-high crumbling wall when they were at lunch. The site at Bhalla Complex off National Highway 4, about 60 km from Mumbai, allegedly has no permission for construction. Narendra Bhalla, owner of the warehouse and labour contractor Budhaji Dalvi have been arrested. “We have arrested two persons for causing death due to negligence. We are investigating the matter,” said Panvel DCP Pravin Pawar.The 26 labourers at the site hailed from Vidarbha’s Buldhana district. Navi Mumbai Chief Fire Officer Abhimanyu Gharat said, “We were informed of the incident by the locals. We removed the bodies within half an hour and rushed the inured to the hospitals.”Along with the fire officers, police and Rapid Action Force personnel from 102 battalion were rushed to the site.According to the police, the area around Taloje at the base of a hill has seen a spurt in warehouse construction as it lies outside the municipal limits of Navi Mumbai, which saves taxes in spite of its proximity to urban markets. PWD engineer Dhanaji Tile said, “The base foundation of the wall was poor and it was an overall weak construction. The entire structure is illegal.” “The reason behind maximum causality is that there is no pillar in the wall as is required. The wall collapsed in one go blocking air passage,” said S M Waghmare, inspector of the state Disaster Management Cell.
