25 days and counting: Missing excavator driver’s family camps at accident site

Mumbai: 65-year-old Balchandra Yadav has not slept a wink for the past 25 days. Braving the scorching sun and at times, heavy rains, he has been holding vigil beneath the Versova bridge on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway in Vasai, at the spot where his son Rakesh, an excavator driver, disappeared on May 29, at around 9.30pm.

“Hope is everything. It will be enough even if I get to see one bone of my child and take him home to give him a proper cremation,” said Balchandra, who came rushing from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh as soon as he was told about his son’s disappearance.

Straddling despair and hope

Rakesh was working on the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s (MMRDA) ₹1,600-crore Surya water supply scheme, which will supply water to the Mira-Bhayander & Vasai-Virar municipal corporations and neighbouring villages. He was employed under a contractor engaged by Larsen & Toubro (L & T), which was selected as the implementing agency for the project through a tendering process.

He was digging a tunnel shaft at a depth of 60 feet when the ground above him collapsed suddenly, trapping him. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) dug through the debris for two days to locate Rakesh. But the operation was called off, reportedly because they were finding it difficult to penetrate the ground owing to the presence of strong sea currents.

The government has alloted Balchandra and other members of Rakesh’s family – his wife Sushila, their two adolescent children, and his brother Durgesh, who also arrived from Azamgarh after hearing about the accident – a room at a nearby lodge. But they have been spending all their days and nights at the site, visiting the room only for a few hours every day, in the hope of finding something, anything, regarding Rakesh’s whereabouts.

Their hopes received a fresh lease of life on June 14, when Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde visited the site and announced that a rescue operation would be launched jointly by the Army, Navy, Coast Guard and NDRF to find Rakesh. He also promised compensation for Yadav’s family along with a job for one of his family members.

But nearly ten days later, on Sunday, the rescue operation was yet to begin. “No efforts are being made to recover my son. I don’t even know what the two NDRF men and two police constables who are posted here are doing,” said Balchandra, seated under the Versova bridge. “The authorities had stopped the rescue operation after the accident and had brought back the machinery for rescue work only because the CM was visiting,” he added.

Lack of accountability

Rakesh’s younger brother Durgesh Yadav, 28, had approached the Naigaon police with a complaint, claiming that government officials and the company had not acted swiftly, due to which the rescue operation was stalled and his brother could not be rescued. But the police merely registered a First Information Report against “L & T authorities” under sections 337, 338 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, pertaining to rash and negligent act and common intention.

“The police have not even bothered to check if a soil test had been conducted before starting the excavation,” said Akhilesh Yadav, Mumbai Youth Congress president, who visited the site and met the family on Friday.

While L & T did not respond to requests for comment, the incident has raised concerns about safety measures in place for workers involved in such large-scale infrastructure projects. “Work on the Surya pipeline has been stopped. But if the company is not held accountable, some other worker might lose his life again,” said the youth Congress president.

Compensation, fresh promise

On Sunday, chief minister Eknath Shinde handed over a cheque of ₹35 lakh to Rakesh’s family as compensation at a function in Mumbai. He also claimed that rescue work had been halted because of the rains, and also because the rescue team had asked for specialised machinery, which would arrive soon.

“The CM has promised us that they will find Rakesh,” said Balchandra, refusing to give up hope.