‘14 buildings collapsed in 15 yrs’

Constructions in the city have become rickety and are crumbling is evident from the fact that on an average, one building is collapsing in the city every year. The city has witnessed 14 building collapse incidents in last 15 years, in which 242 people have lost their lives. According to the data received from the civic body, building collapse incidents are rising in the city with the last three years witnessing five out of a total 14 incidents. The number could rise, as these figures are only of places where the entire building collapsed. Incidents of a portion of a building collapsing and causing casualties have not been taken into account. The Babu Genu building collapse at Dockyard Road last week was the most catastrophic in the with 60 people losing their lives. Prior to this, the most tragic building collapse incident was at Bandra in 1998, when Govind Tower building collapsed, in which 35 people were killed. As per the pre-monsoon survey carried out by the BMC, there are 959 dilapidated buildings in the city, of which 155 are municipal, while 606 are private. The civic body has expedited the process of evacuating these buildings.

*** BMC cuts water, power supply to wadala bldg Age correspondent Mumbai, oct. 1

The BMC has expedited the process of evacuating the dilapidated buildings in the city. The civic body on Tuesday cut the water and electricity of building 88 Tenements of the municipal building at Wadala to evict the last eight families living there. The building, which houses civic employees, has three wings with 24 rooms in the A wing and 32 each in B and C wings. Of the 88 rooms, eight rooms were yet to be vacated and hence the essential supply to the building was cut on Tuesday. The residents of the building were opposing the structural audit conducted by the BMC before the monsoon, saying that the report and facts about the building were not accurate.