A labourer was saved alive after he was stuck for more than six hours in a water pipe in Odisha’s Cuttack district, prompting a massive rescue operation by government authorities. The labourer, 50-year-old local resident Prana Krushna Muduli, was doing sanitation works in the pump house pipe of Cuttack’s Police Colony and got stuck 25-30 feet into the pipe, which was less than three feet in diameter.
Sources say the pump operator, who was unaware of the Muduli’s presence in the pipe, switched on the pump and the force of water swept the labourer thirty feet inside the pipe. He could not come out as he was stuck in a crouched position. After being rescued, he was rushed to SCB Medical College for a health assessment.
The accident has revived questions about unsafe conditions for workers employed in construction and maintenance of public infrastructure in Odisha.
A joint rescue team, comprising of 100 workers, of the fire department, Cuttack unit of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and police worked for nearly six hours to rescue the trapped labourer.
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Police cordoned off the ring road in Cuttack near Chahata area, which stranded hundreds of commuters and vehicles. Hundreds of onlookers, including collector of Cuttack and Municipal Corporation Commissioner, gathered at the site to witness the operations.
A mini excavator or earth-moving equipment was used to dig a vertical path to the point where the labourer was trapped inside the pipe. However, the thick concrete casing around the pipe made the task difficult and drill machines and hand-held cutters had to be pressed into service. Rescue personnel also tried to break the pipe manually with digging bars and mattocks.
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