Mira Bhayandar: As heavy rains continued to lash the twin-city, the front portion of a ground plus three-storey building in Bhayandar collapsed on Thursday morning. A 45-year-old man died, and four people were injured in the incident. A parked auto-rickshaw was crushed beyond repair. Fire brigade officials reported that the front portion of Nav-Kirti Estate, located opposite the east side of Bhayandar railway station, collapsed at around 10:30 am on Thursday.
MBMC had declared the building dangerous and unfit for human habitation
The more than three-decade-old building was recently declared dangerous and unfit for human habitation by the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC). Although the civic administration claimed that the building had been evacuated, some commercial establishments, including a bar on the ground and first floor, had clandestinely continued with their businesses. Senior officers, including municipal commissioner Dilip Dhole, reached the spot and supervised the rescue operations. Dhole said, "The said building was declared as dangerous and evacuated after following the due process of law last month. Four people, including three pedestrians and an auto-rickshaw driver who sustained minor injuries, are being treated at the civic hospital. An elaborate exercise to identify and evacuate dangerous buildings has been undertaken by ward officials. We have brought to the notice of the court about owners who have obtained a stay and have repeatedly appealed to occupants about the risk involved in living in such structures."
Chief fire officer Prakash Borade mentioned that three fire tenders, a rescue van, and 54 fire brigade personnel reached the spot and conducted a search operation to ensure that no one had been trapped under the debris. The body of the deceased, identified as Durga Avdesh Ram (45), who worked as a boot polisher at the railway station, was recovered while clearing the debris in the evening. The injured individuals were identified as Indrajeet Sharma (48), George Fernandes (55), Harishankar Maurya (55), and Abid Ali (22). Meanwhile, the MBMC has started demolishing the building. The twin-city has witnessed 250 mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours.
Legal Hurdles
As part of their annual pre-monsoon exercise, the MBMC had tagged 15 buildings in the twin-city as dangerous. While most of the buildings have been razed, six structures are entangled in legal and other hurdles. Owners of three vacant structures have moved the judiciary, two have challenged the authenticity of the stability certificates by demanding a review, thus creating legal obstacles in taking any type of coercive steps. Ironically, one building located in the Sheetal Nagar area, which has been vacated, continues to house a dance bar in operation.
