Earthmovers, crane fail to bring down tilted building
Civic bodies try for 10 hours to demolish seven-storey structure; congested area a challenge; Families rendered homeless, didn’t have time to grab money or documents
NEWDELHI: Municipal authorities tried in vain Friday to bring down an unauthorised sevenstorey building in south Delhi’s Munirka Vihar, which had tilted on Thursday, with two earthmovers and a 40-feet crane.
A team of engineers from the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the sub-divisional magistrate of the area were present at the spot from 10am to 8pm Friday, with a portion of the adjoining Baba Ganganath Marg cordoned off for the public.
This is the side facing Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) north gate.
After repeated attempts to bring down parts of the building with a strong metal cable, being pulled by two bulldozers, yielded nothing the municipal officers said they would “come back with a 100-feet crane on Saturday”, which they said they will get from Greater Noida.
“Since the crane will come in a trawler and heavy vehicles are permitted on the roads only after midnight, we can anyway get it only on Saturday,” said a senior SDMC engineer who did not wish to be named.
“It is different when a building has collapsed on its own. But it’s the first time we are trying to demolish a seven-storey building, that too in a congested area. No dynamite or other explosive can be used. It has to be demolished bit by bit,” he explained.
The building, owned by 50-year-old Dharam Singh, a retired Central Public Works Department (CPWD) superintending engineer, was built sometime in 2001.
“At that time, and till 2011, constructions in Lal Dora areas (village areas of Delhi) were permitted without sanctioning of building plans. So, many people in Munirka Gaon and other villages of Delhi went on a construction rampage,” a senior
›
It sounded as if the building was coming apart. We just ran for our lives. All our furniture, documents and money are inside. Some of us didn’t even wear our slippers and just managed to grab hold of our mobile phones. SARBIN, resident
SDMC official, requesting anonymity.
“In this village itself, there are buildings up to nine floors and the by-lanes between them are just five-10 feet wide. However, the permitted number of floors in entire Delhi has always been just four, so this building’s upper three floors are definitely unauthorised,” he added.
No action against any municipal official has been initiated so far, senior SDMC building department officers said.
Sunita Kangra, SDMC mayor said, “We will conduct a thorough investigation into who is responsible for this and decide on the course of action after that.”
Singh, who was among the large crowd gathered at the spot to see the spectacle, said, “I am not an offender. Us waqt humne doosron ki dekha dekhi saat manzil building bana li thi. (At that time, we saw others in the area constructing huge buildings here and only followed them.) No municipal officer ever visited me, saying this is unauthorised.”
Meanwhile, over 40 families who were evacuated from the tilted building and at least three other adjoining buildings were on the road without any extra clothing, money or even essential documents they had to leave behind.
“It was on Thursday at 3am when one Mangal Singh on the seventh floor saw cracks on his wall and it sounded as if the building was coming apart. We just ran for our lives. All our furniture, documents and money are inside. Some of us didn’t even wear our chappals (slippers) and just managed to get our mobile phones,” said Sarbin, an auto driver, who stayed in the building.
Another resident, Rajkumari, said building owner Singh arranged for them to stay at the local temple with some food and blankets on Thursday night. “But what do we do now? Even the children’s school uniforms are inside; how will they attend their ongoing exams? Honestly, we don’t even have money to feed them,” she said.
“The SDM office and the municipality should help us. It takes so much blood and sweat to create a home in Delhi, and now all we had is gone,” said Jitender, a helper at a bungalow in Vasant Kunj, who was also a resident of the building, said.