4-storey house was 100 years old; narrow lanes hamper rescue work
In a second major rain-related mishap in Maharashtra in a little over a fortnight, at least 11 persons were killed and eight others injured when a 100-year-old dilapidated four-storey building collapsed at the congested Dongi locality in south Mumbai.
Indications available late on Tuesday suggested that the toll in the mishap might go up as about 40 persons are feared trapped under the debris of the ill-fated building. Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Mumbai Fire Brigade continued their search and rescue operations till late in the night.
The 80-year-old Kesarbai building — which in July last year had been classified in structural audit submitted to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as a structure “to be evacuated for demolition at the earliest” — caved in around 11.30 am, trapping the residents under its debris.
There were in all 15 families in the building when it collapsed like pack of cards.
As per the fatality and injury figures released by the BMC at 8 pm, at least 11 persons were killed and eight others injured in the mishap. The deceased included an 18-month-old boy Ibrahim, a 13 year-old girl and three women. Eight persons, including a child, were rescued in an injured condition and were rushed to Habib Hospital.
Among those killed was one Abdul Sattar Shaikh, said to be the owner of the building.
Expressing his anguish over the mishap, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Collapse of a building in Mumbai’s Dongri is anguishing. My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives. I hope the injured recover soon. Maharashtra Government, NDRF and local authorities are working on rescue operations.”
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered a detailed inquiry into the collapse and fix responsibilities.
The Dongri building collapse comes 17 days after 15 persons - most of whom labourers and their family members from West Bengal and Bihar - were killed when a compound wall of a posh residential housing collapsed on their hutments near Talab Masjib Pune’s Kondhwa locality in the small hours of June 29.
Soon after the Kesarbai building collapse, a blame game began between the BMC and the State-run Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) over the jurisdiction and responsibility for the mishap, after it emerged that a portion of the building was completely illegal.
Given that the Kesarbai building is located in south Mumbai’s most congested area, the operations became extremely difficult as the rescuers had to navigate through lanes and by-lanes before they could begin the search and rescue operations. Matters got complicated further as political leaders rushed to the site along with their supporters after television channels went to town about the mishap.
Such was the chaos at the mishap site that JCB machines or heavy earth moving machines could not be taken in. Even ambulances had to be parked around 50 meters away from the crash site.
Maharashtra Minister Girish Mahajan, who was among the Ministers that rushed to the site, said: “The lanes here are very narrow. That’s why this has become the most difficult rescue operations ever”.
On their part, the local residents sought to be circumspect in dealing with the situation, as they formed human chains around the collapsed building, to facilitate the rescuers to carry on with their operations.
The local people also helped the NDRF and fire brigade teams in removing the debris. The local residents were seen carrying chunks of slabs, iron rods and heaps of rubble in beds and cloths. Housewives from neighbouring buildings dropped towels and bed sheets down from their windows so that the local men could use these to clear the rubble.
The human chains came in handy as the NDRF team rescued a small child and safely took the kid out of the mishap site through human chains.
Among those killed in Kesarbai building was an unidentified male child (3). The other deceased were Sabiya Nissar Shaikh ( 25), K Amirajan (13), Saira Rehan Shaikh (25), all female, Abdul Sattar Kaloo Shaikh ( 55), Muzammil Mansoor Salmani (15), Javed Ismail( 34), Arhan Shehzad (40), Zuber Mansoor Salmani (20) and Ibrahim (18 months).
Meanwhile, Mumbai Building Repair and Reconstruction Board (MBRRB) Chairman Vinod Ghosalkar said that Kesarbai building had been handed over for redevelopment to M/s BS B Developers, which has not yet started the work. “This is a serious matter. We will investigate as to why the redevelopment work was not initiated and as to what caused the delay. We will take appropriate action against those responsible,” Ghosalkar said.
Opposition leaders like Vijay Wadettiwar, Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Chavan, all from the Congress, Dhananjay Munde, Majeed Memon, Nawab Malik, all from the Nationalist Congress Party), and Abu Asim Azmi of the Samajwadi Party slammed the State Government and BMC for lapses leading to the tragedy.
Tuesday’s was one of the several collapses that has taken place in Pune and surrounding areas in recent years. On June 29, 15 persons were killed when a compound wall of a posh residential housing collapsed on their hutments near Talab Masjib Pune’s Kondhwa locality. On July 29, 2016, nine labourers were killed and five others were injured, two of whom seriously, when a slab of an under-construction building collapsed at Balewadi in Pune on Friday morning.
As many as 151 people were killed in a major landslide that rocked Malin village near the temple town of Bhimashankar in Ambegaon taluka of Pune district on July 30, 2014.
Earlier in December 2012, 13 workers were killed when the dome of a building collapsed. In September 2012, 11 workers were killed when an illegal building caved in.
