Two workers killed as a crane collapses during dismantling at a Nagpur housing authority site
Two workers were killed and two hurt on Oct. 30 when the top of a crane about 100 feet tall broke off at a Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) site in Nagpur, India. Police opened an accidental death case.
The crane was being taken down at about 10:30 a.m. when it failed, India TV News reported. Nagpur Today put the time near 11 a.m. A crane operator and three laborers were working at the time. Citing police, The Live Nagpur said the upper section of the roughly 100-foot crane snapped off and fell. India TV identified the dead as Vishwanath Kathane of Bhandara district and Mukesh Nishad of Uttar Pradesh, and The Live Nagpur said one of them was the crane operator. The two injured men, both from Jharkhand, are being treated in hospital.
The site sits near Geeta Mandir in the Ganeshpeth area, close to Cotton Market. Reports differ on who was building it. The Live Nagpur said MHADA had awarded the contract to Shirke Construction Company; India TV said the work was being done by a contractor tied to Vijay Company.
Deputy police commissioner Rahul Madne said investigators will look at whether a mechanical fault or human error caused the collapse and whether required safety steps were taken. A senior police inspector is leading the case. Police plan to question MHADA's engineers, the government's site supervisors and the builder's own engineers. Madne said the site had no CCTV footage, and police are looking into that too. No cause had been announced as of Oct. 30.
Why it matters: Plan a crane tear-down as carefully as the erection: keep the manufacturer's dismantling sequence on site, limit the crew to the people the job needs and log each step. Nagpur police had no site video to review.
Sources
- Two Workers Killed as Tower Crane Collapses at Nagpur’s Cotton MarketNagpur Today, Oct 30
- Two Workers Dead, Two Injured as Crane Topples at MHADA Construction SiteThe Live Nagpur, Oct 30
- Nagpur: Crane accident leaves two workers dead, two injured during dismantling workIndia TV News, Oct 30