Pune: A mountain of legacy waste piled up in the Moshi garbage depot for years collapsed on a three-storey administrative building located 30 metres away at Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s waste-to-energy plant around 1.30pm on Wednesday, causing a cave-in and trapping 20 people under the debris.Four people came out immediately after the collapse. Six others, including five men and a woman, were brought out alive by a team of rescuers by 9.30pm and three men were rescued later in the night. Seven others were still trapped inside the structure, officials coordinating the operations said and efforts were on to locate them.External mechanical ventilation machines are being used to supply fresh air to those trapped inside. “Garbage has landed inside the structure and can generate toxic methane that can harm them,“ Pimpri Chinchwad municipal Corporation’s fire officer Rishikant Chippade said.Four senior officials were attending a meeting on the top floor when the garbage hit the building. The structure tilted and they slid out and were thrown clear of the building, a senior PCMC official said.Teams from PCMC’s fire brigade, National Disaster Response Force, Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority and Indian Army’s Southern Command, along with medical personnel, were at the site for rescue operations.The area has been experiencing relentless and heavy rainfall since Sunday, which may have dislodged the massive mound of garbage that crashed on the building.The site is PCMC’s lone waste-processing facility where garbage collected from across the city is scientifically processed and treated. The plant, operated by a private firm, is associated with an international company, and was virtually inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Pune in 2023 for the launch of the first phase of the Pune Metro.Municipal commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi told TOI that 20 employees were inside the building when it collapsed. “Four came out immediately after the building buckled and are safe. But the rest of them were trapped. Our fire brigade teams reached the spot within 10 to 15 minutes of the collapse. We also sought assistance from NDRF and the Army for the rescue operation. Nine have been rescued so far,” he added.Doctors from PCMC, along with medical teams from the Indian Army, were stationed at the site to provide immediate treatment to those rescued. Municipal commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi said, “The building has partially collapsed and tilted to one side, with garbage entering the structure. Those trapped inside could be facing suffocation due to lack of oxygen. We have 25 cardiac ambulances on standby, considering the site and the possibility of oxygen deprivation.”All the trapped are employees of the plant, canteen staff and administrative personnel. The ground-plus-two-storey building had a parking area on the ground floor, the canteen and administrative offices on the first floor, and cabins and meeting rooms used by senior officials of the operating company and the PCMC on the second floor.Suryawanshi said the city received exceptionally heavy rainfall over the past three days, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) recording more than 500mm of rain during the period.On whether the building’s structural stability was under a cloud since it was constructed just two years ago, he said there were no known issues with it. “The building was located 30 metres away from the garbage mound and was considered structurally safe. Prima facie, this appears to be a natural calamity. A massive heap of garbage appears to have slid down like a landslide and crashed into the building, leading to its collapse,” he said.Defence PRO Ankush Chavan’s statement said, “A joint task force of Southern Command, comprising engineers and medical personnel, has been deployed to assist in the rescue and relief operations at the building collapse site in Moshi. The Army team is working with the NDRF, police, fire services and other civil agencies to support the rescue efforts.”Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner Vinoy Kumar Choubey said, “So far, there are no reports of casualties and the rescue was still on.”(With inputs from Mihir Tanksale)
