In a tragic incident, one worker died while two are feared dead after they fell in West Delhi’s Keshopur canal on Friday afternoon. A project of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to erect cemented wall over the ganda nala for the treatment of water, was going on and the three workers had entered the water treatment chamber for welding where they were suspected to have died after inhaling toxic fumes.
The deceased has been identified as Shahrukh (25), a resident of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh while the missing are Ankit (19), a resident of Hardoi UP and Devinder Sharma(25) a resident of Etha in UP.
According to Monika Bhardwaj, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), West District, a Police Control Room (PCR) call was received at 1.00 pm on Friday regarding a drowning of workers in Keshopur canal.
“Acting on the call, the local police and fire brigade reached on the spot. The fire brigade was able to remove one worker Shahrukh. He was rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital where he was declared brought dead,” said the DCP.
“However, the other two workers Ankit and Devinder could not be traced. Teams are still looking for them,” said the DCP.
According to a senior police official, the three workers had gone inside the chamber where water from Najafgarh drains comes for water treatment. “They had gone for welding work inside the chamber and it is also suspected that they drowned after inhaling toxic fumes in the chamber where the water is collected for treatment,” the senior police official said.
“DJB has awarded a contract to Paritibha Industries based in Nilothi Delhi for a Project to erect cemented
wall over the ganda nala for
the treatment of water which
is sent to Yamuna after
treatment at this point,” said the DCP.
“The deceased workers and rest of nine workers were on misc jobs such as drilling wiring. A case is being registered and police is investigating the incident with all angles. Police teams are questioning contractor and others,” said the DCP adding that further investigation is going on.
Meanwhile, the DJB termed it an unfortunate incident and said the work at the site was related to an ‘interceptor sewer project’.
“We had had given the project to the Engineers India Ltd (EIL), which sublet it to Pratibha Industries.
The EIL is responsible for execution and day-to-day monitoring of the work. The DJB only monitors the progress at monthly meetings,” said a DJB official.