Ulhasnagar: Building declared 'dangerous', yet five flats were occupied

Over the past 12 years, 38 buildings in Ulhasnagar have collapsed, some partially, killing 42 people and leaving at least 5,000 homeless.

MUMBAI: In the latest instance of slab collapse in a Ulhasnagar building, three members of the Dhanwani family lost their lives. The deceased persons have been identified as Priya (24), her mother Renu (55) and father Dholandas (58).

Over the past 12 years, 38 buildings in Ulhasnagar have collapsed, some partially, killing 42 people and leaving at least 5,000 homeless. On Thursday afternoon, locals, who were alerted by the huge sound of the crash, called up the fire brigade and the police and started to clear the rubble in the hope of finding survivors. Priya was the first to be extricated from the rubble, followed by Sagar.

Priya was taken to Central Hospital, Ulhasnagar, where she was declared ‘brought dead’.

The injured person, who is a resident of the fourth floor, sustained a minor bruise on the hand. Officials said that it was not clear where exactly he had been in the building premises at the time the building collapsed.

The rescue operation lasted for more than four hours. Initially, there was apprehension that customers had been present in the shops on the ground floor of the ill-fated building. However, after the entire debris was cleared and no one was found, the rescue operation was called off around 5pm. The shopkeepers left their shops soon after the crash.

While the building houses 20 flats and four commercial establishments, only five of the homes had been occupied. The other residents had sold their flats to a builder who had bought them soon after the structure was declared ‘dangerous’ while a few other residents had moved elsewhere.

The building had been constructed between 1993 and 1994. Sources said that nearly 90% of the buildings that had sprung up in Ulhasnagar in the early ’90s have collapsed in recent times as “inferior quality of Ulwe cement” had been used.

Assistant commissioner of Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, Ganesh Shimpi, said that several notices had been issued to the residents, asking them to get a structural audit of the building conducted. “But the residents failed to get the audit done,” Shimpi said. Besides officials from the fire brigade and the police, the municipal commissioner and a few other senior officials were also at the spot.

An accidental death report will be filed for now until the police investigation is completed, said deputy commissioner of police Prashant Mohite.

Source: realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com

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