Kolkata: The toll in the Taratala warehouse collapse rose to 16 on Friday after three more bodies were pulled out of the debris, the last around 1.10 am, and two injured workers died at SSKM Hospital on Thursday night and Friday evening.One of the bodies recovered early on Friday was yet to be identified till evening.Seven injured workers were discharged from IPGMER-SSKM’s Trauma Care Centre on Friday. Doctors said the remaining patients were stable, though three continued to be under intensive care. “We should be able to send home a few more patients by Saturday,” said ITU specialist Rajat Chowdhury, who is in charge of the trauma care centre.A 400-member team continued clearing the wreckage at the 32,000 sq ft site off Hyde Road, where a warehouse under construction collapsed around Wednesday noon. Some rescuers had worked nearly 30 hours without a break.Rescuers have asked Eastern Railway for oxy cutters and plasma cutters to cut through collapsed iron beams and reach the basement. An official said rescuers are desperate to reach the basement to ensure no bodies remained trapped.The NDRF 2nd battalion commandant, Manish Ranjan, said they were no longer relying only on thermal imaging and had sought Eastern Railway’s help to cut through obstructions.A team member said the three bodies retrieved on Friday had been pinned under pillars and it took around 10 hours to bring them out.Officials said sniffer dogs, thermal cameras, infrared laser beams and drones were being used in the search. The Army has set up an ICU at the site that can treat 40 patients.A Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up after the collapse has arrested six people so far. One of the accused, Kalicharan Banerjee, who was OSD to Firhad Hakim when he was mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), was produced in Alipore court on Friday and remanded in police custody till July 4.The prosecution said Banerjee, whom CM Suvendu Adhikari had repeatedly named in his speech in the assembly on Thursday blaming the previous Trinamool administration for the tragedy, had approved the warehouse plan in Jan ignoring its flaws. Police submitted in the court that they had a lead indicating Banerjee was part of a group that approved illegal building plans.Police have sought lease documents from the port authorities, the original site plan and other records. Odisha businessman Sambhunath Behera, among those behind bars, had taken the plot on lease to build the warehouse.At KMC, the scanner is on the role of some borough IX engineers who had initially vetted the warehouse plan and who were responsible for monitoring the project. KMC is also probing the structural designer and the architect firm involved in designing the warehouse. The SIT is set to question officials at the architect firm, which has been blacklisted by the govt.A high-powered committee led by additional chief secretary Rajesh Pandey, which is probing the collapse, held its first meeting at KMC on Friday. The panel will finalise a standard operating procedure within 24 hours. .With inputs from Suman Chakraborti and Sumati Yengkhom
