24 hours, 200 rescuers: Sifting through every piece of rubble

Said to be one of the biggest rescue operations that Lucknow has seen, nearly 200 personnel from six departments were working around the clock to look for people who might still be trapped in the rubble of a multi-storey building in Transport Nagar.
The exercise, which began after the building collapsed around 5 pm Saturday, had been going on for more than 24 hours when this report was filed.
Drones, robots, heavy earthmovers and sniffer dogs were aiding the 200 rescue workers. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team said the search would go on till the last piece of the debris was removed. On Sunday, five bikes buried in the debris were recovered.
“Personnel from State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF), National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), fire department, Lucknow police, PAC (Pradeshik Armed Constabulary) and the revenue department are engaged in the relief works,” stated the relief commissioner’s report.
According to the fire department, 61 of their personnel, including 30 firemen and chief fire officers (CFOs) Mangesh Kumar (Lucknow) and Raj Kishor Ray (Barabanki), were deployed in the relief work.
“Fire personnel from Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Hardoi, Barabanki, Unnao and Sitapur were called in to assist. Equipment from six fire stations in Lucknow are deployed,” said the Lucknow CFO, pointing out that the fire department was the first responder.
“There was so much debris that a path had to be made by pulling down the walls of an adjacent building. Only then the team could enter the collapsed building,” said another fire official.
Among the rescue teams, four were of NDRF and six of SDRF.
“Five heavy earthmovers are pressed into service to drill through the large cement slabs,” said municipal commissioner Inderjeet Singh.
Meanwhile, there was no information of anyone being missing.
Tech being used in op
“Drones, thermal imaging technology and HSAR (a search and rescue device) are aiding in the rescue,” said Milind Raj, a robotics expert who scanned the rubble with the help of a drone. His company Roboz played a key role in the rescue operation taken up after the Alaya Apartment building collapsed in 2023.
“With the experience gathered from past rescue missions, I developed a palm-sized search and rescue device called HSAR, which can locate humans trapped in debris,” said Raj.
Explaining how this technology worked, he said phone numbers of people trapped in debris was used to activate HSAR, which could hear even vibrations of phones when they rang, and then direct rescue teams to the spot.