Rourkela, June 23: A 45-year-old woman died after falling from her second-floor balcony when a part of it collapsed at her Sector-II quarters here today.

She was rushed to Ispat General Hospital where doctor at the trauma care centre declared her dead on arrival.

The deceased was identified as Premalata Gupta, wife of Manoj Shah, 45, an employee of the Rourkela Steel Plant. The incident occurred when she was seeing off her school-going son from the balcony.

Eyewitnesses said she was standing in the balcony and waving at her son when a portion of the balcony, along with the decorative guard railings, came crashing down.

When Shah, who was taking his son to school, heard a loud sound and looked back he found his wife falling from a height of nearly 40 feet on the asbestos of the garage below and then tumbling down on to the ground. She was seriously injured after the fall.

Gupta's death sparked off a debate over the lack of maintenance of steel plant quarters and roads.

Trade union leaders said the quarters were more than 50 years old and in dire need of maintenance.

Earlier, residents complained that the steel major was not repairing the houses.

A resident claimed that Shah had filed a complaint about the ill-maintained quarters, but no action has been taken so far.

Rourkela Ispat Karakhana Karmachari Sangh secretary Himansu Bala said: "We have heard that he had filed a complaint for maintenance, but no action has been taken. An inquiry should be done to fix the responsibility."

Rourkela Shramik Sangh office-bearer Nihar Samal said: "Structural and civil inspection of all the quarters should be done as these units have become old."

A steel plant spokesperson said the company's chief executive officer Ashwini Kumar had ordered an inquiry and asked a committee to submit its report within seven days.

"It is noteworthy that there was no visible indication of any fault in the structure, nor was there any complaint regarding any maintenance issue. As a result, the collapse of the structure was completely unexpected. The steel plant is taking immediate action for inspection, and if required, it will undertake repair of all buildings of similar nature," he said.

Inspector in charge of Sector-III police station Pratibha Majhi said that so far no complaint had been registered with the police by family members of the deceased.