BENGALURU: Two workers were buried alive while three others, including a site engineer, sustained injuries in a mud collapse while they were digging a trench to lay pipeline at Immadihalli in Whitefield on Sunday morning.
The deceased, Sandeep (19) and Akhilesh Yadav (24), hail from Uttar Pradesh and were part of the group that was laying pipeline for Koramangala-Challaghatta valley project to supply water to the water bodies in Kolar district.
The police have arrested Subhash, Vice President of Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited, the company which had taken up the works, for causing death due to negligence.
The Koramangala-Challaghatta valley project to supply water to 126 water bodies in Kolar district is a state government project and the pipeline work has been going on for the past four years. The work to Megha Engineering was assigned by the Minor Irrigation department. According to police, on Sunday morning there were 10 men at work site, including the site engineer Umashankar (35). A heap of mud, which was thrown on either side of the trench, collapsed on the workers.
Sandeep and Akhilesh, who were welding a pipe, came directly under it and got deeply buried, while three others, including Umashankar, got partially buried and were rescued by others and rushed to nearby hospital.
However, Sandeep and Akhilesh suffocated to death by the time Fire and Emergency personnel could pull them out of the debris, the police said.
Umashankar is said to have sustained serious injuries, while the other two workers escaped with minor ones. A case has been registered at the Whitefield police station.
