Rescue teams recovered one body from the rubble of a three-storey building that collapsed at a waste-to-energy plant in Moshi, Pimpri Chinchwad, near Pune on Thursday, 9 July, while nine people have been pulled out alive as multi-agency search operations continued to trace those still trapped beneath the debris, officials said. The locations of two more bodies have been identified under the rubble.

How the Collapse Unfolded

The building, situated above a 14 MW waste-to-energy plant operated by Antony Lara Renewable Energy in partnership with the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), came down on Wednesday afternoon after a massive mound of legacy waste caved in and buried the structure. The PCMC initially estimated that 23 people were trapped; five managed to escape on their own before rescue teams arrived. Seven survivors were pulled out within hours of the collapse, and two more were rescued after midnight, bringing the total to nine.

Rescue Operation: Key Challenges

Commandant S.B. Singh of the 5th Battalion, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), told reporters that the rescue mission was being hampered by the extreme instability of the damaged structure. 'The first and foremost challenge is that the building can collapse, in which my rescuers can be caught. So, that is the greatest challenge, because the building is highly unstable and a lot of load is there,' Singh said.

He added that the structure had tilted at an angle of nearly 45 degrees, forcing rescuers to crawl through narrow horizontal openings dug manually by hand. Heavy machinery cannot be deployed, as vibrations risk triggering a secondary collapse that could further endanger both trapped victims and rescue personnel.

'Three bodies have been traced. One has been recovered; the other two are still under rubble, of which the second is visible from afar, but it will take some time,' Singh told reporters.

No Signs of Life Detected So Far

Despite deploying advanced life detection equipment — including acoustic sensors, life detectors, and sniffer dogs — rescue teams had not detected any signs of life beneath the debris as of Thursday morning, officials confirmed. Singh said the operation would continue: 'It will certainly take time, but we'll do our best.'

Multi-Agency Response

The rescue mission is being jointly conducted by the NDRF, the Indian Army, the PCMC Fire Brigade, the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) Fire Brigade, and the police. Several employees of Antony Lara Renewable Energy are among those who were trapped when the building collapsed, according to officials.

This comes amid growing scrutiny over the safety protocols at waste-to-energy facilities in Maharashtra, where legacy waste mounds — often decades old and structurally unpredictable — pose a persistent hazard to on-site structures and workers. Search and rescue operations were continuing as of Thursday morning.