Valley
3 workers buried to death while laying water supply pipeline
Two teenagers and a 47-year-old man were buried to death when they were digging a trench for laying a new water supply pipe at Sitapaila in Kathmandu at around 1am on Wednesday. They were killed after they were buried when the earth caved in.Two teenagers and a 47-year-old man were buried to death when they were digging a trench for laying a new water supply pipe at Sitapaila in Kathmandu at around 1am on Wednesday. They were killed after they were buried when the earth caved in.
The incident has brought to the fore the kind of security measures that are put in place in construction works in the country.
The deceased have been identified as Tej Bahadur KC of Parbat and Santosh Das, 18, and Shyam Sundar Ram, 19, of Saptari, according to the Metropolitan Police Circle Swoyambhu.
They were recruited by Tenzin Raman Constructions, one of the eight construction companies contracted by the Melamchi Drinking Water Project under the Project Implementation Directorate (PID) of the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL).
“The earth caved in when the three workers were about to lay the pipe in the trench they had just dug up,” said Pradhyumna Man Chitrakar, project manager of Tenzin Raman Constructions. According to him, 13 persons were working at the site late in the night.
The contractor has been installing pipes in the night in view of heavy traffic and people’s movement during the day. Tiresh Prasad Khatri, director of the PID, KUKL, promised compensation to the victims’ families.
The bodies have been sent to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj for post-mortem. “Investigation is underway,” said Inspector Khem Acharya.