Five die as hoarding falls on tyre shop near eway during rainstorm in Maharashtra

PUNE: Five construction workers, including four women, were killed and three others were injured as a huge advertising hoarding made up of iron rods and bars came crashing down because of strong winds on a tyre repair shop at Mukai Chowk, near Kiwale, around 5.15pm on Monday.
Amid thunderstorm and rain, the workers had taken shelter under the tin shed of the shop on the service lane of the Pune-Mumbai corridor of Katraj-Dehu Road bypass, barely 500m from the start of the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. Ravet police identified the deceased as Anita Roy (45), Shobha Tak (50), Varsha Kedare (40) and Bharati Manchal (30) of Dehu Road, and Ram Aatmaj (20) of Uttar Pradesh. The injured people are Vishal Yadav (20) of Uttar Pradesh, and Rehmad Mohammed Ansari (21) and Rinki Dilip Roy (45) of Dehu Road. They were taken to a nearby private hospital.
PCMC commissioner Shekhar Singh said according to preliminary information, the hoarding was unauthorised. Traffic along the bypas was disrupted for nearly an hour as fire tenders, rescue vehicles, ambulances and police reached the spot to rescue the trapped workers.
It took an hour for the traffic police to clear the road.
Pimpri Chinchwad's municipal commissioner Shekhar Singh said the civic authorities were confirming details related to the crashed hoarding. "According to our preliminary information, this was one of the unauthorised hoardings against which civic action was stayed by the high court. We will release more details later," he said, adding that their immediate priority was the search and rescue operations and contacting the relatives of the deceased and injured.
The civic body's disaster management cell head, Omprakash Bahiwal, said the fire brigade got the call about the accident around 5.40pm and accordingly, the rescue and search operation started. He said, "The hoarding was huge. Its size could be up to 80ft x 160ft."
Senior inspector Shivaji Gaware of the Ravet police said, "The group of workers executed their day's work at a nearby construction site and were returning to their rooms when strong wind and rain started in the area. They took shelter in the tyre repair shop when the hoarding crashed on the tin shed. It is an open plot leading to a roadside eatery. There were two hoardings at the spot and one of them collapsed. It was made up of iron rods and bars."
The fire brigade officials used cutters to break the iron rods of the hoarding structure. An earth mover was pressed into the service to execute the rescue and relief work.
Vishal Yadav, one of the injured victims recuperating in a private hospital at Ravet, told TOI, "I took shelter in the tyre repair shop with my colleagues when it started raining heavily. There were many people with me. Suddenly, something heavy fell on us and it was all dark after that. I have suffered head injuries. I do not know what happened to my colleagues."
An IMD official said, "A cumulonimbus cloud cell had formed over Talegaon-Dabhade, parts of Pimpri Chinchwad and Pirangut, among other areas on Monday. This is a thundercloud and usually associated with rain, lightning and gusty winds. Such winds can gust at a speed of 30-40kmph. This wind speed can cause trees/tree branches to snap and fall, among other such instances."
(With inputs from Neha Madaan & Piyush Bhusari)