Thane: After a landslide incident on Saturday night that damaged six houses in Indira Nagar near Kalwa, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) evacuated around 20 to 25 houses nearby as safety and precautionary measures.
According to the regional disaster management cell of TMC the incident took place at Ma Kali Chawl, Indira nagar slum near Kalwa east around 11pm. All tenants have built houses illegally on the slope of the hills, which are dangerous. "The residents got alerted after a few stones came rolling on their shed. All of them came out to see huge stones coming down and completely damaging the six houses. No one was injured as they came out of their house", said Santosh Kadam, head of regional disaster management cell, Thane.
After the incident the officials from Kalwa police station along with RDMC, fire brigade reached the spot. "As precautionary measures we evacuated the nearest 20 to 25 houses. All were staying on the boundaries or slope of the hills and were risking their life from any big tragedy. We shifted them to an TMC school in Gholai nagar in Kalwa. Meanwhile, the six houses that were damaged in the landslide were demolished", added Kadam.
On July 19, heavy rains resulted in a landslide in Kalwa. The debris had fallen on two huts in the Gholai Nagar slum, killing five and injuring two others.
After the July incident, the Thane forest department carried out a survey and found around 1,300 huts on the slopes, all of which are risky. The survey for over 15 days in slums across Parik Nagar, Gholai nagar, Indira Nagar, Bhaskar Nagar, Kargil area, among others. The forest department last week had also given notice to around 32 dangerous huts. The forest authorities gave details to the TMC and Torrent electricity to cut off the water and electric supply.
We tried calling Narendra Muthe, the range forest official, Thane Forest department, but he didn't respond to any calls and messages.
