Govt to demolish 3 bldgs, only manual rescue till then: CM
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 07 January 2014 19:33 IST
Goa government has decided to demolish remaining three adjoining buildings at Ruby Residency in Canacona as they would collapse any moment, endangering lives of the rescue teams.
The rescue operations with machines have thus been stopped at the site where one of the buildings collapsed, killing around 30.
“We will continue rescue operations manually, but we can’t use machines as the vibration would cause collapse of the adjacent buildings”, said chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
It actually happened today evening, when the rescue team traced a body under the debris and decided to use the poklen to remove the rubble.
However, they had to immediately stop the machine as the adjoining building started shaking once again. The body is thus still seen lying under the debris.
According to chief minister, every authority has certified that there cannot be anybody survived in the debris of the buildings.
“I cannot risk lives of the living rescue men while removing the dead bodies”, said Parrikar.
On 4th January, one of the five-storeyed under-construction buildings collapsed like a pack of cards, with four floors falling on each other like a multiple sandwitch, killing several workers working on the site.
The fire brigade, military and Pune-based disaster management rescue teams have succeeded in pulling out almost 40 workers, out of which 18 are found dead.
However, the authorities stopped the rescue work since yesterday as one of the adjoining building started tilting.
Even other three adjoining buildings have developed cracks.
“Also the retaining wall, where the rescue work is going on, is collapsing”, said Parrikar.
The government has requisitioned a special crane from Pune, which cuts the building into pieces.
“It will reach tomorrow and finish the demolition work in three days”, he said.
The mechanical rescue work would resume only from Saturday, 11 January, he added.
