More building collapse incidents will occur in Thane if authorities fail to act and residents don’t vacate dilapidated buildings.
It seems that the municipal authorities have failed to learn any lesson from the building collapse incident in Thakurli which had claimed nine lives. According to Thane Municipal Corporation’s (TMC) there are 2,566 more dangerous buildings and 58 dilapidated ones in the city. Of this, residents of 38 dilapidated buildings have been evacuated. Thus more building collapse incidents will occur if authorities fail to act and residents don’t vacate dilapidated buildings. Often it has been observed that residents continue to stay in dilapidated buildings despite getting a notice from municipal corporation. The civic body don’t provide any alternate accommodation to residents hence they don’t vacate their houses thereby risking their own lives.
On Tuesday a three storey building collapsed in Thane claiming the lives of 12 residents including six women and a seven year old girl. Seven people were injured in the incident. The building Krishna Nivas which is more than 50 years old collapsed at around 2.30 pm trapping 19 of its residents in the debris. Five families had occupied third floor of the building. Two other floors were vacant and the ground floor had commercial establishments. The fire brigade, and a 50-member team of the National Disaster Relief Force rushed to the site for rescue and relief operations.
Thane Municipal Corporation officials said the dilapidated building had been declared “dangerous,” and several notices were sent to the building owner, who had approached a builder for redevelopment. Though some families had vacated, at least five families were residing in the building after they refused to vacate their flats over a dispute.
Sanjeev Jaiswal, Thane Municipal Commissioner said, “A fresh survey will be conducted of those buildings which are more than 30 years old in the city. We will ask residents to vacate the dilapidated buildings. A Trisadasya committee under the leadership of Additional Commissioner Ashok Kumar has been constituted to probe the reason behind the Krishna Nivas building collapse incident. Ashok Burpalle, Deputy Commissioner and sub city development engineer Rajan Khandpekar too are included in this committee. They will submit a preliminary report. A technical report will be submitted by the VJTI institute.”
Ramesh Borse, a Thane resident said, “The government must appoint a housing regulator to oversee the problems of the realty sector. Poor construction materials are also to blame in these circumstances. Strict action must be taken against builders and construction firms if they use substandard materials for developing new projects.”
Ajit Deore, a Thane resident said, “All city corporations should be authorised to inspect the old buildings thoroughly before issuing fitness certificates. Everyone knows how money power plays a role in getting unfit structures certified by the same authorised structural engineers. Rampant corruption is prevalent in the realty sector which needs to be addressed on a priority basis.”
Rakesh Prasad, a Kalva resident said, “Time-bound Redevelopment of dilapidated buildings is necessary otherwise we will see a repeat of these incidents. Those who died continued to stay in a dilapidated building despite municipal warning, only because they had no other option. The government should provide affordable housing to the poor and middle class people.”
Thane MP Rajan Vichare said that he has taken up the issue of redevelopment with the Prime Minister. “I spoke to Modi-ji about the need for cluster development in Thane and he assured that he will ask the chief minister to look into the matter,” says Vichare
On July 28, “Matrukrupa,” a 40-year-old building had collapsed in Thakurli in Thane district, killing nine persons, and injuring 10 others.
