Two more buildings collapse in Mumbai, three incidents in four days

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 1 pm, 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 2 pm,” 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 don’t evacuate this place due to the 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.

“The 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 6 pm 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.

“Most of these buildings that are now being declared as dilapidated are from the British era and have multiple owners. More than 90 percent of these houses have stayed in court because of cases filed by the parties involved with the property. Therefore, repair works couldn’t be taken up and the condition of the building stays the same,” said Desai.

“The housing laws of Maharashtra need to be updated. A uniform law needs to be taken up for maintenance and repairs of these decade-old properties or else, these problems are going to stay,” he said.

“Most of the occupants have been staying here for several decades now because of low rent. Due to the tenancy laws, the owners cannot directly evict them. Meanwhile, the tenants are reluctant to sponsor the repair works saying they don’t own the buildings. Therefore, these cases get stuck in the litigation process and the condition of the building doesn’t improve as the court orders a stay,” said a civic official requesting anonymity.

The officials said that every year, the local BMC office sends notice to office bearers of buildings that are more than 33 years old. Following this they need to submit a structural audit report and based on this report, the civic body decides if a building should be repaired or demolished. The official also pointed out that the BMC’s responsibility only stays limited to pointing out if a building is dilapidated or not.

“The responsibility of repair and demolition is to be taken up by private owners. The BMC doesn’t have any authority on this. Meanwhile, there are cessed properties in Mumbai that are owned and managed by MHADA and the responsibility of managing these properties are with them,” said the official.