Mumbai: After the Hussaini building collapse, which claimed 33 lives at Bhendi Bazaar, MHADA has decided to increase the manpower of the zone for speedy rectification and evacuation of dangerous buildings in the area. The authority plans to evacuate residents from the extremely dilapidated buildings within six months, before monsoon.
“On Monday, the authorities will pass orders to other divisions to divert staff to the Bhendi Bazaar division. Basically, we are going to increase the technical staff, which includes executive engineers and deputy engineers. This will ensure speedy rectification of extremely dangerous buildings which need to be evacuated quickly,” said a senior Mhada official from the repair board.
Each Mhada division has set of seven engineers — four deputy engineers, two junior engineers and one executive engineer. The Asian Age had reported last year on the staff crunch faced by the authority to check on dilapidated buildings. However, after the Hussaini collapse, Mhada has decided to increase the count of technical staff. “Over a 100 buildings in the area need to be surveyed while dangerous ones need to be shortlisted. With the current staff strength, it was difficult to survey the buildings before monsoon. But now with more technical staff, each engineer can at least survey 20 buildings himself,” said the official.
On Thursday, Mhada officials visited the site to check on the challenges faced by Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust in the redevelopment process.
