Four killed while cleaning water pumping station in Guj

Four sanitation workers died after inhaling poisonous gas while cleaning a storm water pumping station in Gujarat's Ahmedabad city, a police official said on Sunday.

The mishap took place in Odhav locality late Saturday night when a worker went into the well of the civic-run Ambikanagar pumping station and fell unconscious after inhaling a toxic gas, he said.

Three other labourers then rushed in to help him, but they also inhaled the gas and died on the spot, the official at Odhav police station said.

The deceased were identified as Sarvjeet (25), Sunil (25), Ravji Chauhan (38), and Lalsinh Marwadi (26), he said.

The bodies were sent for postmortem and a case of accidental death was registered, the official said.

The police were investigating if there was negligence on part of a private contractor and whether the sanitation workers were provided the safety equipment before starting the cleaning work.

The storm water pumping stations are cleaned as part of the pre-monsoon preparedness for which the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has outsourced work to some private contractors, a source in the civic body said.