Pune: Nine labourers were killed when the elevator box carrying them collapsed, after a cable snapped, at the construction site of the underground tunnel linking Neera and Bhima rivers in Akole village, over 120 km from here, in Indapur taluka of Pune district, on Monday evening. There were about 300 labourers at the work site. 

According to Bhigwan police station, under jurisdiction of Pune rural police, the incident took place at around 6 pm. The other workers took out the bodies with the help of local villagers.

Police Inspector Neelkanth Rathod, in-charge of Bhigwan police station, said, “The elevator box fell down about 100 feet after the cable snapped. After getting information, we rushed to the spot and also alerted other agencies.”

According to officials, work has been going on a war footing for the last two months. There are two deep wells through which workers go down and come up. These are also used to remove mud and stones while digging the tunnel. After the day’s work, the workers were coming up when the cable holding the elevator snapped and it will fell down at high speed resulting in deaths of all the workers on the spot.

The deceased persons have been identified as Mukesh Kumar Maurya (26), Surendra Bachchan Yadav (25), from Uttar Pradesh, supervisor Sambige Naidu (38), Avinash Sidha Reddy from Andhra Pradesh, Chhotu Gole, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Sugriv Narute, Balram Savan and Sushant Pandhi. 

The tunnel linking project aims to link rivers from water rich areas of the district to those in the dry regions in Marathawada. A 24-kilometre long tunnel is being constructed, which will link the Neera river with Ujani Watershed Project on Bhima river. The plan is to lift the water further to dry areas.