Yet another industrial mishap took place in Visakhapatnam, taking the death toll in the four incidents in less than three months to 29.
In the latest occurrence, on Saturday, 11 workers were killed as a massive rail mounted crane collapsed at the Hindustan Shipyard Limited located in the port city.
The accident occurred at about 12 noon when the workers were performing the load test on the newly installed crane of 70 tonne capacity at the ship building PSU, under the ministry of defence.
While the operation was on with men in the cabin, the crane suddenly tilted and collapsed on the north side of the Slipway-4 on the crane track.
Four of the deceased are permanent employees of HSL and rest are employees engaged with private firms – three from Ms Green Field, two from Ms Lead Engineers and one from Ms Squad-7.
“The identity of one more is yet to be known as his body is trapped under the debris. Efforts are on to retrieve his body,” HSL officials said.
HSL has initiated a departmental enquiry headed by a director level official to establish the cause of the accident. A case has been registered at Malkapuram Police station.
Visakhapatnam district collector Vinay Chand inspected the mishap site, while CM Reddy reviewed the situation from Amaravati.
According to the Visakhapatnam collector, the crane was erected two years back but was not commissioned. “HSL has tied up with Green Field to operationalise it under a fresh contract. Two other private agencies were also engaged - Lead Engineers for maintenance and Squad-7 for regular operations.”
Chand also announced that from the government side, a five-member committee of experts is being constituted to bring out the facts in the incident in 3-4 days.
"All eleven dead are believed to be from Vizag. We are working out the ex-gratia etc., aspects," the official said.
HSL employees stated the Saturday mishap as the gravest incident in the yard that mainly builds and refurbishes the Navy vessels.
Series of mishaps in scenic city
Visakhapatnam, known popularly as Vizag, on the East Coast is heavily industrialised with steel plant, shipyard, refineries, several pharma, and other manufacturing units. The headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam, is also famous for several picturesque locations.
The Saturday incident is the fourth industrial mishap in and near Vizag, beginning with the gas leak from the LG Polymers unit at Gopalapatnam on May 7 that killed 12 locals. Three people succumbed later, according to the police.
On June 30, Benzimidazole leak in Sainor Life Sciences pharma unit in Parawada caused the death of two employees. A huge blast and fire on July 13 night in Visakha Solvents Limited, Jawaharlal Nehru pharma city at Parawada near Vizag killed one operator and severely injured a chemist.
Apart from the above incidents with life loss, on July 27, two containers loaded with chemicals were gutted in a fire that caused property damage at a container yard near the Visakhapatnam airport.
At a time when their city is becoming the seat of the government, the series of appalling mishaps has the locals, especially those in the industrial belt, rattled.