How rescue operation became a herculean task for bravehearts

Gurugram: Situated in the narrow lanes of Ullhawas, it became an onerous task for the professionals of NDRF, SDRF and Haryana fire services to undertake the rescue mission. Space was so restricted that only JCB machine could enter the area to clear the rubble. It took more than eight hours for the officials to retrieve the first body and in the period of 12 hours, the officials were able to take out six bodies.

Initially, the priority teams of NDRF was to locate the victims trapped inside the debris. The canine search followed by technical and manual search was carried out to get the sign of victims. Over 150 members of the NDRF responders removed rubbles and cleared the obstructive materials using high tech gears. Thereafter to reach to the victims, a vertical approach of taking out the victims were used through specialised equipment.

On intimation, one fully equipped collapse structure and rescue team (CSSR) team of the NDRF was immediately rushed to the incident site from its regional response centre (RRC) at Dwarka that started the search and rescue operations. To strengthen the response and to capitalise the rule of golden hours, two more teams were sent from the NDRF base of Ghaziabad to aid the ongoing search and the rescue operations.

The major problem faced by the officials was to enter the area where forget about the heavy vehicles, not even the normal vehicles can enter on the normal days.

What made the matters worse for the officials was that there were huge buildings built in the small area of land. It is important to note that since the area comes under Lal Dora, most of the owners have built more than four-storey building so that the required space can be given on the rent.

To make sure that the rescue operations go without any hindrance, over 200 officials were involved in taking the rubble while one JCB that was in the area was taking out the rubble. The ambulances and the medical vehicles were parked outside the narrow street where the building collapsed.

Tragedy strikes Gurugram six months after Shahberi incident

On July 18, 2018, when the two under construction towers collapsed in Shahberi area of Greater Noida Millennium Post reported that how the buildings in Gurugram also were at risk. Just under six months, the grim facts highlighted by the report did come true and the tragedy occurred in Ullawas, Gurugram. While the probe into why the under construction building collapsed is still to be initiated, official sources indicated that lack of technical expertise and poor quality construction were the main reasons behind the incident.

To profit from the burgeoning real estate market of Gurugram, most of the individual builders are also trying to cash in. In areas of Sushant Lok and DLF Phase -3 where there has been a growth of a lot of illegal guest houses, there have been complaints that how in the area of 60 square yards four to five floors are constructed. Even though notices by the Department of Town and Planning (DTP) have been sent to these landowners in the past, no concrete action has been taken against them. Of late, there have been certain demolitions that have taken up by the public agencies.

While most of the villages have come under the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, most of the landowners in the villages are having a building of more than seven floors by claiming that it is still a Lal Dora land. With illegal colonies already a problem in the city owing to the deep nexus between public officials and builders, developers still look to cut corners to earn more profit. A major factor of saving costs is to use to the poor quality of construction material.

The issue of using sub-standard construction material is reported not only from small builders but even the big developers. The recent rains reported in Gurugram had again exposed poor quality of construction material being used by builders. Most of the pictures were also shown on social media reflecting how the buyers are being fleeced by the developers.