Soil cave-in claims two lives at Faridabad Railway station
Two women labourers lost their lives and two others sustained serious injuries after a portion of soil collapsed during basement digging at the Old Faridabad Railway Station on Friday afternoon. The incident occurred around 12:30 pm while excavation work was underway as part of the station’s renovation project.
According to the police, workers were clearing soil dug up by an earthmover for the construction of a basement when the sudden collapse occurred, burying four labourers under the debris. A rescue operation was immediately launched, and with the help of fellow workers and earthmovers, the victims were pulled out and rushed to Badshah Khan Civil Hospital. Two of the women could not be saved.
Government Railway Police (GRP) officials are currently investigating the matter. Senior officers, including Pushpendra Raman Tripathi, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Northern Railway, and Railway DSP Rajesh Chechi, visited the hospital to meet the injured.
The deceased have been identified as Navita (32), a native of Nawabganj village in Lakhisarai district, Bihar, and Nandita (34), from West Bengal. The injured — Kajal and Govinda, both from Jharkhand — are under treatment at the hospital. All the workers were residing at the construction site.
Raveena, a fellow labourer who narrowly escaped the tragedy, recounted the harrowing incident. “A total of four women were working there, but I and another woman had stepped away to defecate. That’s why our lives were saved,” she said. She added that Navita is survived by four children.
A senior police officer said the GRP is conducting an inquiry into the incident, but no formal complaint has been filed yet by any of the workers or their families.