The massive roof of an under-construction warehouse caved in at Garden Reach on Wednesday, with tonnes of wet concrete and giant steel beams that twisted, snapped and buried under them an unknown number of workmen.
At least five people died, 20 were hospitalised, and several were missing even as rescue efforts continued late into Wednesday night to locate survivors.
The army, the Centre’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Kolkata Police, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the state civil defence and fire services have been deployed.
In the evening, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said the rescuers had told him that the men trapped inside had been given oxygen support, drinking water, and they were hopeful of bringing them out alive.
The roof caved in around noon on a plot owned by Calcutta port and leased to a private enterprise. The collapse triggered tremors that shook those working in neighbouring offices. Many thought it was an earthquake.
The warehouse on Transport Depot Road was being built for Behera Brothers, a company that says it provides warehousing services for tea and other products.
In August 2024, the port authorities handed over 6,689sqm land to the Beheras on a 30-year lease to set up a multi-storeyed warehouse and cold storage, an official with Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port said.
Residents said the casting for three floors was nearly complete. The structure was about 20 feet tall. Suvendu identified the lessee as Sambhunath Behera. A banner hanging outside the site named Behera Brothers as the lessee and Ayan Traders as the developer. A local person is said to have taken a “sub-contract” to build the warehouse.
Another company had custody of the land till a couple of years ago and the space was used to store tea. After the last lessee’s tenure ended, the port authorities gave the land on lease to the Behera Brothers, who also store tea in most of their warehouses, said a local businessman.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation had sanctioned the plan for the warehouse in January. “Preliminary findings indicate a flawed plan,” Suvendu said.
No arrests had been made till late Wednesday evening.
Sources said a team from the detective department and Taratala police station went to the New Alipore residence of the owner of the company, but did not find him there. The police searched the residence.
“We are looking for the owner of the company whose warehouse was being constructed. A suo motu case will be initiated,” additional commissioner (crime), Kolkata Police, Kunal Agarwal said.
Out of the five bodies, the state government could identify three — Krishna Choudhury, 30, Rohit Choudhury, 40, and Rahul Choudhury, 17 — till the filing of the report.
Employees of neighbouring warehouses who rushed to the site after the collapse said they saw a smashed head, a hand trying to signal that he needed help and many others screaming for help from deep inside the rubble. “It felt like an earthquake had struck,” said Ujjwal Kumar, who works in a neighbouring warehouse.
The rescue effort involved several men, heavy-duty machines and traditional tools.
Rescue workers were trying to chip their way in after machines drilled holes in the concrete. Cutters pierced the steel beams into smaller pieces. Everything was meant to create openings in the rubble so that those trapped could be taken out.
“The crash was reported at 12.07pm. Rescue work started by 12.45pm or 1pm. Cranes had been deployed initially but rescuers felt that using cranes could harm those trapped. Drill machines were then used,” the chief minister said. He promised a detailed statement in the Assembly on Thursday.
Suvendu harped on how state and central government agencies worked hand-in-hand in the rescue effort.
A theory doing the rounds was that the rain and storm on Monday made the ground wet and shook the foundation, something that Suvendu refuted. A structural engineer said that a flaw in the design could have made the structure vulnerable to rain and gusts of wind.
Transport Depot Road, where the warehouse was coming up, is a hub of factories. As one enters the road from Hide Road, there are factories and warehouses on both sides. Some of them belong to large corporate houses.