UJJAIN: Two persons were killed and at least two others injured when a portion of a 10-ft high wall in front of Gate 4 near Mahakal temple collapsed in heavy rains on Friday evening. The injured were taken to the district hospital from where they were referred to Indore.
The wall collapsed in the rear part of the heritage building of Maharajwada near Shri Mahakal Temple.This wall was built on the slope of the courtyard and there was an accumulation of rainwater from Thursday’s rain and the weakened wall couldn’t withstand the pressure from the heavy rain on Friday evening resulting in its collapse. The wall was about 10 feet high, and a 12-foot-long section caved in onto four people standing nearby.
The district administration rushed teams for rescue operations and three people were rescued from the rubble.
The district collector has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
The deceased were identified as Fareen, wife of Azad Rathore, 22, resident of Jaysinghpura, and Ajay, son of Omnath, 27, resident of Shivshakti Nagar, Ujjain. Two others Sharda Bai, wife of Sohan Lal, 40, resident of village Ujjainia, Thana Ghatiya, and Ruhi, daughter of Azad Rathore, 3, Jaysinghpura, who were seriously injured were referred to Bombay Hospital Indore after initial treatment.
Ganesh Dhakad, the administrator of the Shri Mahakaleshwar Temple Management Committee, said that Maharajwada is in front of Gate No. 4 of the temple. Due to heavy rain, water had accumulated at the base of the wall that led to its collapse under its pressure.
Black clouds had descended on the temple town since Friday morning and it started pouring heavily by the evening, leading to waterlogging throughout the city. Around 6:30 PM, a 12-foot-wide section of the wall near the upper edge of the valley in the line of the Bade Ganesh Temple collapsed.
The incident took everyone by surprise and there was chaos all along. Police personnel from the nearby police station and the SDRF team stationed at the Mahakal Temple outpost arrived at the scene and began relief work.
Where the incident happened
In the uphill from Harsiddhi to Bada Ganesh temple, the outer wall of the Maharajwada building was built above the house of astrologer Anand Shankar Vyas. Directly opposite, after a 40 feet wide road, is Gate No. 4 of Shri Mahakal Temple, and in the upper part is Pandit Suryanarayan Vyas’s house, Bharti Bhavan. About a 12 feet section of this approximately 10 feet high weakened wall collapsed.
Reason for the incident
The courtyard of the Heritage Building Maharajwada is quite large and spread out. Until some time ago, there was a gymnasium and a Malkhamb ground in its rear part. For the past one year, restoration work on the Heritage Building has been under progress. The water from the courtyard was accumulating at the upper edge of the wall where the incident occurred. The rainwater from the previous day was already collected there. On Friday evening, due to heavy rain, water from the courtyard accumulated at the upper part of this sloping wall and the weakened wall couldn’t withstand the pressure and collapsed.