Ghatkopar hoarding collapse: 73 damaged vehicles retrieved; debris removal work still on

Pic/Sameer Markande

More than 70 vehicles, including cars, were salvaged from the rubble at the site of the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse in Mumbai, where shredded metal debris at a gas pump revealed indications of the catastrophe that killed 16 people.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Bhushan Gagrani proclaimed the end of the 66-hour-long search and rescue effort at the collision site on Thursday morning, but workers and machinery were still working overtime to clean the wreckage four days later.

The 120-foot-by-120-foot billboard toppled on a nearby gas pump in suburban Ghatkopar on Monday evening due to strong winds and heavy unseasonal rains, trapping people and vehicles beneath its massive wreckage. The disaster claimed the lives of up to 16 individuals and injured another 75.

The civic leader called off the rescue attempt at 10.30 a.m. after analysing the situation at the petrol pump, but the task of removing the rubble continued until late evening with the help of JCBs, dumpers, cranes, and other equipment. The rescue squad recovered the remaining two bodies buried in a car beneath a girder shortly after midnight on Wednesday.

According to a BMC official, up to 73 cars, including 30 two-wheelers, 31 four-wheelers, eight autorickshaws, and two heavy trucks that were all damaged in the incident, were removed from the scene and turned over to police as their owners arrived to claim them.

Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been sent for the search and rescue operation since Monday evening. The Mumbai Fire Brigade had deployed 12 fire engines and several other vehicles for the exercise. All these were withdrawn after the operation was over.

Another civic official stated that the Fire Brigade has maintained three fire tenders and other senior officials on duty as a precautionary measure due to the fuel stock in the petrol pump's tanks.

With PTI inputs