Parts of historic Basant Sarai collapse due to heavy rain in Gorakhpur
GORAKHPUR: Panic prevailed among locals in Basantpur locality when parts of the historical Basant Sarai, a 14th century monument encroached by over 500 people, collapsed suddenly during heavy rainfall on Monday evening.
A makeshift paan seller Vishnu Gupta and some children playing near the building had a narrow escape as the locals alerted them on time.
Bhikari Verma and his family, who are among the few legal tenants of the building, had a providential escape as they were outside when the portion in which they stayed collapsed. Sarai has about 20 legal tenants and the remaining treated as encroachers by Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation (GMC).
As parts of the 600 year old building started to collapse inhabitants ran out, recalls Anirudh, a youth living next to Sarai. “Wide cracks developed in Sarai that was in a very poor shape but the administration did not take any notice,” said Vishnu.
Another local resident Naseem told HT over 500 families were living in Sarai, most of whom are encroachers and daily wage earners. “The building was in a dilapidated condition in the absence of repair work. Cracks had appeared all over the building,” said Naseem.
Meanwhile, on hearing the news cops from Rajghat police station and local corporator Vijendra Agrahri reached the spot. “We have asked locals to evacuate rooms, which are so dilapidated that they could fall anytime. Senior administrative officials including commissioner have been informed,” said Agrahari.
However, calls made to municipal commissioner BN Singh on his mobile was picked by another person who informed that he was out of city.
The monument built with red bricks, lime stone and clay, made headlines when municipal corporation passed an order to raze it for building a commercial establishment in 2014. However, the decision was rolled back following strong criticism by activists.
After the reports were highlighted by media, GMC decided to develop it as tourist spot by developing it on the lines of Delhi haat, keeping its original structure intact . Indian National Heritage and cultural heritage,( INTACH), an NGO engaged in conserving the old structures had been tasked to prepare a detailed project report for the project but it could not be implemented due to budget constraints.