THANE: A painter stranded 21 floors above the ground on a gondola lift at an under-construction high-rise in Thane’s Majiwada area was rescued after a harrowing 15-hour ordeal. The incident took place at the Ashar Plus Building on Tuesday afternoon, and the rescue was completed early Wednesday morning.
The worker, identified as Allo Hussain from Kolkata, got stuck around 3 pm while painting the façade of the building. The gondola — a suspended cradle used for exterior construction and maintenance — abruptly stopped due to a power outage, leaving him stranded high above ground with no immediate way to descend.
Despite the danger, help didn’t arrive until much later. Authorities were only informed of the situation around 2 am — nearly 11 hours after the worker became trapped. A coordinated rescue operation was then launched by the Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) and the Thane fire brigade. By 6 am, the gondola was safely lowered using a backup generator, and Hussain was brought down.
Yasin Tadvi, head of the RDMC, confirmed that the worker was unharmed and in stable condition. He had survived the long wait with only water, which fellow labourers managed to pass to him from a higher floor.
The delayed response has raised serious concerns. Senior municipal officials are expected to initiate an inquiry into why it took so long for the incident to be reported. “Every minute matters in such situations. A delay of this magnitude warrants a thorough investigation,” a civic official noted.
The Thane police and municipal teams are also likely to examine whether safety protocols were followed at the construction site and whether any lapses in supervision or communication contributed to the delay.
This incident once again highlights the risks faced by daily-wage workers on high-rise construction sites and the urgent need for stricter safety monitoring and faster emergency response mechanisms.
