Goregaon fire: After 16 yrs, SRA bldg to get water in 8 days

Mumbai: It took a human tragedy for the government to wake up and course-correct a condition of its own making 16 years ago. Four days after fire broke out in a building in Goregaon developed by Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), the government agency announced that it will provide water supply, conduct structural audit and repair it. SRA officials said the decision was taken following a meeting with chief minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday.

On Friday, a Level-2 grade fire which started in one of the shops on the ground floor and spread in the seven-storeyed Jai Bhavani building in Unnat Nagar, claimed seven lives and injured 62 others. It was built on slum land between 2006-2007.

Satish Lokhande, CEO, SRA, said, “Water supply will be given to the building in the next eight days. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will connect its water line to the auxiliary tank. The developer will then connect the tank to the society’s reservoir. Work on it has started from today.” He added that on Monday, SRA started the structural audit of the building; and after audit report is tabled and assessed, the agency will begin the repairs, at its own cost.

On Saturday, HT had reported that the occupants of the building lived without potable water for 16 years. The three agencies – SRA, BMC and MHADA -- responsible for the construction and providing basic necessities to its residents indulged in blame-game for the lapse. While the BMC had said the building had no auxiliary tank making it impossible for it to connect a water line, the SRA officials had said that the auxiliary tank was built a few years ago but residents of the building declined the connection, for reasons not known to the officials, while MHADA passed the responsibility back to SRA, stating this was its responsibility as the building was constructed by the agency.

Meanwhile, on Monday, BMC said 35 patients were still receiving treatment in various hospitals; on Sunday two patients from HBT Trauma Care Hospital, in Jogeshwari, were shifted to Cooper Hospital and Seven Hills Hospital.

Some residents who managed to escape the fire and asphyxiation by smoke that had filled up many floors of the building, have found shelter with relatives and friends. The others are being sheltered temporarily at a BMC-run school in the neighbourhood.

On Sunday, civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal set up an eight-member committee to investigate the cause of the fire, on the CM’s direction. The committee will be chaired by additional municipal commissioner Sudhakar Shinde with deputy municipal commissioner Vishwas Shankarwar as member secretary. It is expected to submit a report in seven days.