Two people died at BSNL duct in Nigdi Pradhikaran on Wednesday
The deceased have been identified as Manoj Baburao Shinde (26) and Amol Shinde (19), both from Hingoli. Officials said they were pulled out of the 10-foot deep chamber around midnight by the fire brigade. Mahesh Bansode, senior inspector of Nigdi police station, said Wednesday night’s incident was similar to what happened inside the chamber on Aug 15 last year. Fireman Vivek Patil said: “Local police reported the incident to us around 11.56pm on Wednesday.
A fire brigade official confirmed to TOI that the deceased were found without any safety equipment.
Officials from BSNL are being investigated,” Bansode said, adding that the bodies have been handed over to families. One official from PCMC’s fire brigade department said during the monsoon, the chamber accumulates mud and rainwater, a mix which the official said can generate toxic gases. “It’s not safe to enter these chambers without safety gear,” “We don’t know who operates this chamber, but authorities should not have responded after what happened last year,” said Vaishali Chavan, who lives nearby. We got to know about the incident after the fire brigade turned up,” she said.
“We have now registered a case of accidental death. Our team reached the spot within a minute. Initially, one person was spotted stuck inside the chamber, tangled in cable and surrounded by mud. We pulled him out and then police informed us that there was another person inside. He too was pulled out. The chamber was filled with cabling. They died of suffocation while attempting to set up a new fibre connection. Police had registered a case of culpable homicide against the contractor and an unknown official. “We didn’t even know people were working in there.
The three workers who died last year had entered the chamber on Independence Day, again without any safety equipment. On Thursday, notices were sent to chief of the Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation and Pune district collector, urging them to investigate the incident and to submit reports on action taken against those responsible for the two deaths.