A 39-year-old worker got trapped in a suspended cradle lift at an under-construction high-rise building in Maharashtra's Thane city and was rescued safely after 15 hours on Wednesday morning, July 9. The worker, a native of Kolkata, was engaged in painting work using the cradle (an open lift) when a sudden power outage left him stranded on the 21st floor of the building located opposite a petrol pump in Majiwada area at around 3 pm on Tuesday, Thane Municipal Corporation's disaster management cell chief Yasin Tadvi said.
"The power failure occurred in the under-construction building, which comprises a parking basement, four other floors of parking and a 35-storey tower. The incident was reported to our disaster management centre at 2:02 am on July 9 by the Balkum fire station after getting an alert from the construction site, and an SOS was raised," he said.
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The official said when he reached the site at around 4 am, only a construction supervisor was present, and there was no immediate solution in sight. "The lift was non-operational due to power outage, and I was informed that help was delayed because the power employees were on strike. I then personally contacted a senior Maharashtra state electricity officer, who promptly deployed two staff members," Tadvi said.
The site engineer was also contacted and directed to arrange for a private generator. "Within 30 minutes, a generator was brought to the site. With the coordinated effort of the disaster management officers, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team, police, fire brigade, electricity company staff and the generator crew, we safely brought down the trapped worker at around 6 am," Tadvi said. The worker did not suffer from any injury, he said, while highlighting lapses in the safety protocols at construction sites.