Mumbai: The day after a portion of the boundary wall along the driveway at Lloyds Estate in Wadala collapsed, the 32-storey building witnessed two more cave-ins near ‘D’ Wing’s garden area. Harsh Badheka, a resident of ‘C’ wing, said anxiety is mounting among the residents. “The second cave in today, which happened around 5 pm, took with it most of the edges of the garden area. It is crumbling gradually and inching closer to the ‘D’ wing,” he said.
Despite the stay order on ongoing construction work by Dosti Reality, after Monday’s wall collapse, residents claimed that the builders have not mended their ways. The construction work continued on Tuesday morning despite opposition by a few residents. Simran Parmar, who has filed the FIR against Dosti Reality, said, “We are opposing the construction because they would fill up the pit and hush up the matter. The cave-in is a solid evidence against the builders who never heeded our repeated complaints. We want them (builders) behind the bars. They are playing with our lives.”
According to the BMC official, the restoration work is urgent. “The stop work notice was issued yesterday which the builders have complied with but to prevent further cave-ins they are continuing with the restoration work. They have been asked to fill the pit with concrete. But the residents are not cooperating,” he said, requesting anonymity. The audit report by the Structural engineer appointed by the BMC, Nitin Kamble, on Monday had stated that the building is safe. “How is the building safe when we have had two consecutive landslides today?” said Simran Parmar.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Congress President Sanjay Nirupam said that it is criminal negligence on the part of the BMC and the builders. “The BMC is hand-in-glove with the builder. The Executive Engineer and the Additional Municipal Commissioner of the Building Proposal Department should be held responsible for this and booked. They should be suspended as well and an investigation should be initiated.” Nirupam further demanded that the BMC should compensate and build a protection wall around the building. Nirpum, along with the Lloyd residents, will be staging a morcha outside the BMC’s F-North office in Wadala on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the residents of Dosti Blossom building, which is extremely close to the excavation site, are apprehensive of a similar mishap. They have registered a non-cognisable offense against the builders. Rajesh Kashi, the Secretary of Dosti Blossom, said, “There has been a lot of depression in our parking and garden area. Our basement and podium is in danger, anything can happen now. The builders are not responding at all.” Rahul Daga, an activist and a resident of Dosti Acres, said that the builders have gone underground to save their skin. “They are not accessible since the investigation began.”
