3 DROWN IN WELL AT SEWAGE PUMPING STN

GHAZIABAD : Three persons, including two employees of a contractor firm, died after they tried to save one another inside the deep well of a sewage pumping station in Ghaziabad’s Loni town on Sunday morning. The operation of the station was entrusted to a private firm by the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam.

According to officials, the pumping station is located near Dabur Talab Colony and receives sewage from the nearby localities. The sewage is later pushed to a treatment plant at Sadullabad.

Police said that Roshan Lal, 40, a cleaner, and one of the employees of the contractor, had gone into the well around 9.50 am with the help of a ladder to clear off garbage, which had got collected inside the pumping station.

However, when he could not come out after 10 minutes, his colleague Mahesh, 35, went down and allegedly fainted due to the presence of toxic gases inside the well, eventually getting drowned.

Shameem, a local, who undertook the initial rescue operation, said, “Two of us from the locality went down and tried to retrieve the victims from the well. However, due to the presence of noxious gases inside, I felt dizzy and climbed back. However, the second man, who had gone down with me, fell inside and could not come out.” The third victim has been identified by the police as Bulbul, 26, who was a native of Bareilly and a resident of Loni’s Nasbandi Colony.

Soon after the information spread, police and the fire department officials arrived and alerted the rescue team of the eighth battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) from Ghaziabad.

The NDRF officials said that the well was nearly 60-feet deep and had nearly 4 feet of water. There were toxic gases such as methane. “The team reached the spot by 12.20 pm and started the operation. Mahesh’s body was retrieved around 1.10 pm, while the body of the 26 year old unidentified man (Bulbul) was retrieved around 1.45 pm. The third body was taken out at around 2.15 pm,” said an officer from NDRF.