More than 40 hours after a towering garbage heap at Pune’s Moshi waste-to-energy plant buried the administrative building of the company operating the facility, rescue teams are still searching for eight employees believed to be trapped beneath the debris.

The collapse, which occurred around 1.30 pm on July 8, has transformed a facility inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2023 and under the jurisdiction of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation into the centre of a massive multi-agency rescue operation – involving the National Disaster Response Force, the Indian Army, firefighters and the police.

According to municipal officials, about 23 people were inside the building when the garbage heap gave way. Of these, five workers identified as Ashok Gupta, Munendra Kumar, Chandrashekhar Singh, Dinesh Sutar and Shri Bala managed to escape. 

NDRF Deputy Commandant Deepak Tiwari said, “We began the rescue operation at around 3.30 pm on July 8 and, by the early hours of July 9, our teams had rescued nine people alive. During the continued search operation, we later located one more person, but unfortunately he could not be saved. The operation is still underway. A significant amount of time has passed, which makes rescue efforts increasingly challenging, especially because the victims are trapped under waste that releases methane gas, which can be harmful to the human body. To improve conditions for anyone who may still be alive, we have been continuously pumping fresh oxygen into the debris.

By 8 pm on Tuesday, rescuers had pulled out six people alive who were identified as Somnath Shelke, Sachin Davadgaon, Dadasaheb Arade, Sujata Shinde, Rampratap Chavan and Ranveer Singh. All were shifted to nearby hospitals for treatment. The operation continued through the night. By.30 am on Wednesday, three more survivors – Vijay Sapkal, Bhushan Patil and Mahesh Raut – had been rescued.

Rescue teams located Bhavesh Vani at around 9 am on Thursday. He was pulled out in a critical condition and rushed to the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital in Pimpri, where doctors declared him dead.

Officials said eight workers are still believed to be trapped beneath the debris. They include Mahesh Kumbhar, Waman Kasbe, Nagesh Gaikwad, Rahul Gaikwad, Sunil Korke, Akshay Sawant, Shubham Patil, Ranjeet Patil, and one other worker whose identity was confirmed by officials later.

Excavators are removing the debris while NDRF teams, firefighters, army engineers, and medical staff are searching through the wreckage. The NDRF’s 5th Battalion, based in Pune, has deployed specialised collapsed-structure search-and-rescue equipment and technical search methods, including a canine squad, to locate survivors.

‘Difficult time for family’

Newslaundry spoke to some of the relatives of those who are feared to be trapped inside the collapsed structure.

Nitin Sarode, brother-in-law of 33-years-old Sunny Mane, told Newslaundry, “My brother-in-law worked as a driver at the company. On the day of the incident, my sister called me and said he had been trapped inside the debris. We have been at the site ever since, but there is still no trace of him. My sister has been crying constantly. Their younger child is just two years old, and the elder one is seven. The elder child keeps asking where his father is. We don’t know what to tell him.”

Krishna Kasbe, nephew of 52-year-old Waman Kasbe, said, “My uncle worked in the housekeeping department. I was at work when my family called and told me about the collapse. We rushed to the site immediately, but even after more than 40 hours there is no sign of him.We are originally from Beed, and my uncle came to Pune nearly 20 years ago because droughts made life difficult in Marathwada. He had been working with this company for the past five years. Everything changed in a moment. We are only praying that we receive some good news. The entire family is going through a very difficult time. My uncle has four children, one daughter is married, and his two sons and another daughter are working.”

State Water Resources and Disaster Management Minister Girish Mahajan, who visited the site on Tuesday evening, said continuous rainfall over the previous two days may have contributed to the garbage mound collapsing onto the building. “A mound of waste washed down and fell onto the structure, leading to this unfortunate accident.”

The reason?

Authorities are yet to clarify whether the collapse was linked to the functioning of the waste-to-energy plant itself or to conditions at the adjoining landfill area.

The plant was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2023. According to the Press Information Bureau, it was built at a cost of around Rs 300 crore and was designed to process 2.5 lakh metric tonnes of waste every year and convert it into electricity.

At the time of its inauguration, it was described as having India’s largest boiler in a waste-to-energy plant. The project was developed by Antony Lara Renewable Energy Pvt Ltd. The engineering, procurement, and construction work was carried out by a consortium of  Hitachi Zosen India Pvt Ltd a subsidiary of Japanese company Hitachi Zosen Corporation.

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