Building collapse toll now 9, rescue ops on

The death toll in the building collapse in the Fort area of Mumbai has gone up to nine, one of them a 17-yearold boy who succumbed to his injuries at JJ Hospital on Friday. Of them, seven, including two women, have died since around Thursday midnight, while a search and rescue operation was still on at the building crash site.

Two persons were killed after a corner portion of the six-storey building — Bhanushali — caved in around 4.45 pm on Thursday in the Fort area.

Three more persons, who were rescued from the site, were declared dead at the hospital around midnight on Thursday, while a 62year-old woman died on Friday morning, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said. The elderly woman was taken out from the debris and rushed to the state-run JJ Hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

The ill-fated building had been partly vacated for repairs by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada), BMC sources said. In 2019, Mhada had applied for ‘Intimation of Development’ (IoD) which the BMC granted, and thereafter it was Mhada’s responsibility to get the building vacated and repair it, Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said.

Mhada had informed that repair work had stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak and three out of 12 tenants had returned to the building after vacating initially, Mr Chahal had said. Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar, who visited the crash site, had said the building had been declared as ‘C1’ category (dangerous structure) and the BMC had served notices regarding it.