Heritage panel to examine Esplanade bldg

Mumbai: The Mhada has informed the Bombay high court that the heritage committee will visit the Esplanade Mansion building on July 18 to examine its condition. Mhada had declared the 100-year-old mansion as “dangerous”.

A NGO approached the HC and expressed apprehension that the upper portion of the building could collapse on the road, leading to casualties. The HC then directed Mhada to tie a net around the building and file an affidavit.

Mhada counsel informed the court Friday that the work of covering the building with a net was still in progress. Due to heavy rain, the work had been stopped for two days.

A division bench of Justices S.C. Dharmadhikari and Gautam Patel had last week rapped Mhada and said, “Does human life mean nothing?” The bench asked what steps Mhada had taken to secure the area.

The court was then informed by the Mhada lawyer that barricades had been put up around the building and a separate path had been made for pedestrians to walk and for vehicular movement.

The bench sought to know where any portion hanging from the top of the building would collapse (on the road or inside the barricades).

When Mhada counsel said that the debris would fall on the road, the bench asked Mhada to put up a net covering the entire building.

“We want netting around the entire building. All this should have been done by now,” it said.

The hanging portions are not going to give prior notice to Mhada before collapsing, the bench said.

The court suggested that Mhada take assistance from those contractors who undertook the work of netting mountains and hills during the monsoon on the Mumbai-Pune expressway to prevent landslides.