Toll touches 5 in Chandivali building collapse

Mumbai: Despite Tuesday’s heavy downpour, rescue operations at the Chandivali building collapse continued albeit at a slow pace. The rescue operations were stopped on Tuesday evening for about three hours, as there was no power supply but resumed early on Wednesday morning. The death toll has now reached five following the recovery of two unidentified bodies, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.  Officials said that since the bodies were found in pieces, it would be difficult to identify them.

The NDRF team and the Fire Brigade officials have rescued eight people since Saturday evening, out of which five were dead. Ever since the collapse, five bodies have been recovered from under the debris, of which only three have been identified as Gaurav Mallar (32), Naval Naik (22) and Naseem Akhtar (30).

Avinash Dharma-dhikari, senior police inspector at Saki Naka police station confirmed the number of casualties. “The rescue operation has been going on since Saturday. Four days after the incident, two men are feared dead. We are trying to recover all the bodies, and the operation will not stop till then. We have registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) in their deaths and are trying to reach their families.”

Fire chief officer Prabhat Rahangdale said, “The death toll has reached five, and two are still missing. The rescue operation is underway, and stops only at night, but resumes early next morning.”

The building, Crystal Plaza Business Park, located near Sangharsh Nagar in Chandivali was being demolished so that it could be converted into a residential complex. The structure collapsed at around 5:35 pm on Saturday after a slab broke off from the middle portion of the building during the demolition process.

An official involved in the rescue operation told this paper that only the middle portion of the building had collapsed, while the other parts were intact.