Two more buildings collapse in city
MUMBAI: On Thursday, the city witnessed two more incidents of buildings collapsing, taking the total number of such incidents to three in just four days. While no casualty was reported from Thursday’s incident, several lives got saved by a mere stroke of luck.
The first incident was reported from the densely populated Badam Wadi neighbourhood in the Kalbadevi area in South Mumbai. According to BMC reports, a portion of the western part of this building collapsed at around 1pm. An hour later, the entire western flank of this building crashed. This building was a cessed property, whose maintenance right is with the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).
Local authorities stated that the building was partially evacuated before monsoon, this year. However, residents and eyewitnesses state that there were people still staying in that building, who were mainly cloth merchants and craftsmen, employed at jewellery stores.
“It was around 1pm, a wall from the top floor fell. We realised that the building was supposed to collapse, soon after which we evicted the entire compound. More than 100 occupants which included tenants and shipowners were driven out within half an hour by residents and Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB). The remaining part of the building crashed around 2pm,” said Sujit Dubey, an eyewitness, who had his shop on the ground floor of this building. “Even though the building was in a dilapidated state, the tenants were reluctant to relocate. In Kalbadevi, more than 80% of the buildings are old and are in poor condition, however, locals refused to evacuate this place due to a dearth of available accommodation in Mumbai,” said Dubey. Aakash Purohit, a former corporator and a local resident said that the building was under repairs and the MHADA was carrying out renovation works.
“MHADA had served notice to this building and was carrying out repair works. It was because of the prompt action of the local authorities that the lives got saved,” said Purohit.
Meanwhile, officials of the MFB said that a thorough inquiry will be carried out by BMC, building a proposal cell.
The second incident was reported in Sion at 6pm in the evening, where a portion of ground-plus-five structures fell. Following this, the MFB was pressed into operation.
“This building was also owned by MHADA and was empty. So, no loss of lives was reported from here,” said Sanjay Manjrekar, deputy chief fire officer, Mumbai. At present, there are 337 buildings in Mumbai that have been identified as ‘dilapidated’ by the BMC. Civic officials said that while more than 90 percent of the buildings are empty, there are few buildings that are still inhabited by occupants. Rahul Desai, a civic activist said that besides the reason for unavailable affordable housing, many people still stay in these buildings because of litigation issues.