Unable to withstand the incessant rain for the last six days, a cold storage in Boreya, on the outskirts of the State capital, under Kanke police station caved in on Thursday leading to a loss of Rs 5 crore.
“Although, I had taken it on lease in 2015, the builder vacated it in November 2016 following which it was made operational from April 2017, but it could not withstand the incessant rain even for a single season and fell down like a pack of cards today at 2.05 am,” said Chairman of National Farmer Club Cooperative Society limited (NAFCCOl) Pawan Kumar, who had taken it on lease from Vegetable Marketing Federation limited (VEGFED). He claimed that the weak construction of the cold storage resulted to such an incident resulting into a loss of at least Rs 5 crore of the farmers.
“Around 200 metric tons of potato and 2,000 metric tons of corn were stored in it,” said Kumar. The entire building had no beams and had been constructed with 10 mm rods, he added.
Kumar also claimed that the District Administration, Home Secretary and the Managing Director of VEGFED had been informed on July 22 regarding the possibility of its collapse, but nothing could be done in this regard.
Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar, however, confirmed that after getting complaints of the possibility of the incident, the ammonia gas filled in it had been released by sending a NDRF team and had requested the VEGVED MD to try to get it demolished safely but it fell down on its own.
“We have also told the VEGFED MD to try to take out the stored articles safely as much as they can to minimize the losses,” said the DC.
Meanwhile weather, as claimed earlier by Meteorological Department, remained pleasant since midnight on Wednesday, having scanty rainfall in some parts of the State.