At least 11 killed in building collapse in Goa

At least 11 workers were killed and many feared trapped when a half-built apartment block collapsed in the Indian resort state of Goa, police and media said today, the latest disaster to draw attention to safety standards amid a construction boom.

The three-storey building in Canacona, just over 4km from the popular Palolem beach in the western state, India’s smallest, collapsed yesterday.

Senior police official OP Mishra said 11 workers were killed and had been 21 rescued so far.

Media reports put the death toll at 14.

Around 50 people were working at the site at the time and at least a dozen were trapped under the concrete, according to witness accounts cited in media reports. One report put the number of people trapped as high as 60.

India’s booming construction industry is set to be worth $1 trillion by 2025, which would make it the world’s third largest, according to a report by Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics.

But this dazzling growth has often come at the expense of safety standards.

At least 50 people were killed when a five-storey apartment block in India’s financial centre, Mumbai, collapsed last September.

A collapse in April killed 72 people in Thane, a satellite city just outside Mumbai. Officials said the structure was built with poor materials and did not have proper approvals.

Goa police have registered a case - using a process known in India as a "first information report" - against the real estate development firm building the Goa block.

Reuters