The Mumbai Building Repairs and Redevelopment Board (MBRRB), an undertaking of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), has initiated its pre-monsoon-related work, which involves surveying old buildings including cess properties located in South Mumbai. According to Vinod Ghosalkar, chairman of MBRRB, "So far, 22 per cent of the old buildings have been surveyed. So far, no building has been found to be in an extremely dilapidated condition. Our officials are expected to complete the pre-monsoon-related building surveys before June."
MBRRB, every year, conducts such a pre-monsoon building survey and declares old dilapidated buildings unsafe. Last year, around 18 buildings were declared dangerous.
In fact, MBRRB faces extreme hardship while providing alternative accommodation to these tenants living in dangerous buildings when asked to be vacated every year. And this time, due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, several buildings of MBRRB have been turned into quarantine centres. Therefore, shifting tenants from dangerous buildings will be a big task before the authority.
Ghosalkar said, "We plan to reserve a few buildings for transit accommodation. The decision will be taken before monsoon so that no shortage of houses will exist in the rainy season."
The city is home to more than 14,000 cessed buildings that are over a century-old and house lakhs of residents. MBRRB, which collects cess, undertakes repairs of these buildings regularly besides conducting surveys and listing most dangerous buildings before monsoon. The board also has an emergency control room to handle distress calls from the residents of such buildings.
