Kannauj building collapse: All workers rescued after 16-hour operation

All 28 workers were pulled out safely by rescuers from the rubble of a collapsed under-construction building at Kannauj railway station following a 16-hour overnight operation, officials said on Sunday.

An FIR has been registered against the contractor and an engineer for various offences including negligence and endangering lives, officials said.

The rescue teams, including personnel from the national and state disaster response forces and the railways, worked through the cold winter night to clear the debris and pull out the trapped workers.

No fatalities have been reported, the officials said. Twenty-six workers have been admitted to various hospitals in Kannauj, while two with serious injuries were shifted to the Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) Hospital in Kanpur, they said.

The workers at the LLR Hospital are out of danger, hospital sources said. One of them has a head injury while another sustained a leg injury, they said.

A complaint was filed by Vipul Mathur, Executive Engineer of the Railway Gati Shakti Directorate, at Farrukhabad Government Railway Police (GRP) station against the contractor and the engineer after the collapse of shuttering during the construction of a waiting room at the Kannauj railway station left the workers trapped.

The FIR was filed under sections 146 and 153 of the Railway Act, 1989, and Sections 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 289 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery) and 290 (Pulling down, repairing or constructing any building without guarding probable danger to human lives) of the BNS.

According to the complaint, the incident occurred during the laying of the concrete slab when the shuttering suddenly collapsed, trapping labourers under the debris.

The report alleges negligence in adhering to construction standards and violations of safety protocols for workers during the project.

Taking serious note of the incident, the railway administration has said that strict action will be taken against those responsible.

The monitoring of construction processes and enforcement of safety standards will be intensified to prevent such incidents in the future, Mathur said.

Kannauj District Magistrate Shubhrant Kumar Shukl visited the site early on Sunday, expressing relief over the success of the rescue effort.

CCTV footage from the site surfaced, showing a labourer was attempting to fix the shuttering (a temporary structure used to support concrete) when the roof collapsed.

The footage suggests that a beam carried by the worker hit the shuttering, causing it to slip and ultimately collapse.

The North Eastern Railway (NER) on Saturday formed a three-member committee to investigate the cause of the collapse.

The committee includes the chief engineer (planning and design), the additional divisional railway manager (Izzatnagar) and the chief security commissioner of the Railway Protection Force.

The construction was being carried out as part of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), aimed at enhancing the infrastructure of Kannauj railway station.

NER officials have announced ex gratia for the injured workers: Rs 50,000 for those with minor injuries and up to Rs 2.5 lakh for those with serious injuries.