‘Ulhasnagar bldgs built with poor sand quality’

ULHASNAGAR: Even after twelve residents lost their lives in two separate slab collapse incidents in Ulhasnagar in the last 15 days, the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC) is yet to survey buildings in its limits that were built using inferior quality sand and prone to collapses.

Both the Mohini Palace Build- ing that killed five residents and Sai Shakti that killed seven, were not listed as dangerous buildings by the UMC. “We are doing a survey of such buildings. It will take a few more days to find out how many such structures existed in Ulhasnagar,” said Raja Dayanidhi, commissioner, UMC.

Activists from the city claimed that most of the buildings that came up in the 1990s were made of inferior quality sand. The then chief officer of Ulhasnagar had taken action against such illegal buildings by demolishing parts of them. However, most developers reconstructed the buildings.

The UMC’s list, though, has 147 unsafe buildings, there are several such buildings that are left out. They are either illegally built or are weak due to the substandard materials used.

Thane guardian minister, Eknath Shinde, visited the spot and said, “have asked the civic body to get all the details of such buildings and evacuate the residents with immediate effect.”

UMC PRO, Yuvraj Badhane, said, “There are more than 50 buildings that were reconstructed during the 1990s using inferior quality sand and need to be inspected.”

RISHIKESH CHOUDHARY/HT Rescuers inspecting the debris at Sai Shakti Building on Saturday.