At least 22 persons were killed, 12 others injured, while around 30 people are feared trapped after a five-storey residential building collapsed in Bhendi Bazaar area of south Mumbai today
Pics/Pradeep Dhivar
At least 22 persons were killed, 12 others injured, while around 30 people are feared trapped after a five-storey residential building collapsed in Bhendi Bazaar area of south Mumbai today
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Rescue workers in Mumbai searched for more than a dozen people feared trapped in a 117-year-old, six-storey building that collapsed early on Thursday, following two days of torrential rain in India's commercial and financial hub.
Desperate relatives of those trapped pleaded with rescuers to help find their loved ones after getting phone calls from trapped survivors. About 200 police and fire personnel sorted through the debris. Police had yet to determine what caused the collapse near Crawford market, a landmark of south Mumbai's old city with narrow streets packed with markets and shops. Many Muslims live in the neighbourhood.
Rescuers, including a team from the National Disaster Response Force, said the area's narrow roads were making it difficult to bring in the excavators. The building housed a sweet shop warehouse on the ground floor. Smoke rose from the ruins. A housing trust that was looking to redevelop the area said the building had been declared unsafe in 2011 and the housing board had offered alternative accommodation to tenants, but only seven families had moved out by early 2014.
"Our disaster management cell received a call at 8.40 am about the collapse. We immediately rushed fire brigade personnel to the site to rescue the trapped people. We fear that several people are trapped under the debris," a senior Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) official said.
He said the exact number of people staying in the building and those trapped cannot be confirmed immediately. Search and rescue operations are underway with the help of local residents.
The ill-fated building had got clearance for redevelopment in 2011, and was supposed to be vacated, Minister of State for Housing Ravindra Waikar said.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who visited the spot, ordered an inquiry by the state's additional chief secretary. He also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of the deceased. The government will bear all medical expenses of those injured, he said. Additional chief secretary has been asked to conduct a probe to find out what led to this unfortunate incident, the chief minister said.
"The redevelopment project had been approved by the agencies concerned, and subsequently this building was supposed to be demolished. The final approval for demolition was granted in May 2016, but a few families opted to stay in the dilapidated building which led to this unfortunate loss of life," he said.
Soon after the building crumbled around 8:30 am, rescue workers in hard hats were seen clambering up the mound and banging large concrete slabs with hammers to reach underneath to pull out the survivors and bodies. Cranes and bulldozers were deployed to scoop up the debris. Residents helped with the rescue efforts, hauling concrete slabs with bare hands. Siren blaring ambulances had a trying time navigating the narrow streets in the presence of large crowds that had gathered around the place.
Prabhat Rahangdale, the city's chief fire officer, told PTI that salvage operations will continue overnight. "The operations will continue until the time the entire debris has been cleared and all bodies and survivors pulled out," he said.
A 90-member team of the National Disaster Response Force is also involved in the operations. Some residents claimed that about 40 people belonging to nine families lived in cramped rooms in the structure, which was declared "unsafe" by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).
The Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT), which was to have undertaken redevelopment of the 117-year-old structure, said the building housed a total of 13 tenants -- 12 residential and one commercial. "Of them, the trust had already shifted seven families in 2013-14," it said in a statement.
"MHADA notices dated March 28 and May 20, 2011, declaring the building dilapidated, were issued along with an offer of transit accommodation to the remaining tenants and occupants," it said.
This is the second major building collapse in the city in just over a month, after the crash of a residential complex in suburban Ghatkopar on July 25 which left 17 people dead.
(With inputs from agencies)
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