A 39-year-old worker from Kolkata was rescued safely after being stuck for 15 long hours in a suspended cradle lift at a high-rise building under construction in Maharashtra’s Thane city. The worker was painting the building using a cradle lift (an open hanging platform) when suddenly the power went out around 3 pm on Tuesday. This left him stranded on the 21st floor of the building, which is located near a petrol pump in the Majiwada area.

Yasin Tadvi, chief of Thane Municipal Corporation’s disaster management cell, said the building has a parking basement, four floors of parking, and a 35-storey tower. The incident was first reported to their disaster management center at 2:02 am on July 9 by the Balkum fire station after getting an emergency call from the site. When Tadvi reached the building around 4 am, only a construction supervisor was present, and no quick solution was available. The cradle lift could not be moved because of the power cut. The situation got worse as the power company workers were on strike, which delayed help even more.

Tadvi then directly called a senior officer from Maharashtra State Electricity Board, who quickly sent two staff members to help. The site engineer was also asked to arrange for a private generator. Within 30 minutes, a generator was brought to the site. Thanks to the combined efforts of disaster management officers, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), police, fire brigade, electricity staff, and generator team, the worker was finally rescued around 6 am on Wednesday.

Luckily, the worker was safe and did not have any injuries. Tadvi also pointed out that there were serious safety lapses at the construction site and stressed the need for better safety measures to avoid such incidents in the future.