SIR call, quick errand save 2 at Taratala collapse site
Times of India | 29 June 2026
Kolkata: Two survivors of the Taratala warehouse collapse, 55-year-old Leela Devi — saved by the SIR queue — and Pradyut Munda — saved by a few minutes by stepping outside to get water and biscuits for his wife — sat under the banyan tree outside Trauma Care Centre at SSKM Hospital, waiting for the doctor’s call on Pradyut’s wife Bodan’s health. Pradyut’s wife Bodan sustained multiple fractures after being trapped in the rubble.
Leela and Pradyut started working at the site nearly six months ago. When Pradyut, 20 days ago, returned there with his 31-year-old wife, Bodan and Leela, the only women labourers, became friends.
“My wife was working on the third floor. Our lunch time was around 1 pm. Like other days, she called me around 11.30 am to get some water and biscuits. I was busy. Around 12 noon, I stepped outside, crossed the road to the shop. That’s when I heard a crashing sound. I turned around and there was no building. Everything collapsed, all in rubble. There was dust all around,” he said.
Soon after the collapse, Pradyut called Leela, who skipped work on Wednesday to go to Alipore court to get her documents sorted for the SIR appeal. The names of Leela and her eldest son were deleted during SIR. They filed an appeal before the Tribunal, but there was no progress. On Wednesday, she went to Alipore court to consult a lawyer with her documents.
“The SIR call saved me that day. But the incident has shaken me,” Leela said. She has been working as a daily wage labourer since 2005 for contractors hired by Kolkata Port Trust and private construction firms. “You work eight hours, get Rs 440 and return. There is not much interaction between workers. But Bodan and I got close, despite the language barrier, as we often worked together,” she said.
Leela, since Wednesday, has been coming to SSKM daily by afternoon. She waits till evening and then returns home, which is nearly 30 minutes away. Pradyut, however, sleeps on the hospital campus, waiting for his wife to recover. Since they don’t have a home in the city, they used to live at the site, which has been reduced to rubble.
“We were supposed to return home (East Singhbhum’s Chakulia) by the end of this month for Buru Bonga (mountain puja), which is to be observed on July 2. Now I don’t know what will happen,” he said, wearing the same set of light blue shirt and dark blue trousers that he wore on the day of the incident.
Bodan is undergoing treatment on the seventh floor of the Trauma Care Centre ICU. She fractured her left leg and injured her back, which may need surgery. Four workers, including Bodan, have been kept at Trauma Care Centre, three in ICU and one in the Disaster Management section.
On the same floor as Bodan, a few steps away, lay 28-year-old Vishwas Prakash from UP’s Pipra. A welder at the construction site, Vishwas was one of the workers trapped. His father arrived at the hospital on Sunday around 4 am. Vishwas, too, may need surgery.
His friend Omprakash Chowdhury, who acted as his guardian since Wednesday, said that Vishwas was supposed to return home by Wednesday’s train. “I met Vishwas at a construction site in Visakhapatnam. We kept in contact. He wanted work outside India but ended up in Bengal, while I was in Guwahati. I spoke with him for the last time two days before the incident. I was in my hometown, Krishnanagar. I was supposed to travel to Kolkata to meet him on Wednesday. I saw the news and rushed to Kolkata. His family was in contact with me. Since his father would take time to arrive, I signed as his guardian,”
Chowdhury said. His father said that Vishwas can eat and talk but cannot move.