In fifth such building collapse in Mumbai and surrounding areas during the current monsoon, 13 people were killed and 27 others injured when a four-storey building caved in like a proverbial pack of cards in BMC colony of Dockyard Road in south Mumbai on Friday morning.
More than 20 people were rescued from under the debris of a 33-year-old building housing the employees of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that collapsed around 6 am.
Several persons were feared trapped under pile of concrete rubble and twisted steel.
“Till 9 pm, we have recovered 13 bodies. We apprehend that some more persons might be still under the debris. The toll may go later in the night,” a senior BMC official said.
Of the dead, five were identified as lako Devaji Chavda, Jamuna Chavda, Anil Chavada, Anant Pawar and Madhvi Pawar. The identification of the recovered bodies was underway till late in the night.
Twenty-six of the injured people are undergoing treatment at the state-run JJ Hospital, while one of the injured is being treated at the BMC-run Nair Hospital.
The building, categorised as a “C-2” structure, housed 21 families. The ill-maintained structure was direly in need of repairs.
There was utter chaos on the Brahmadev Khot Marg near the Babu Genu Market, which is in the vicinity of the Dockyard Railway station, as the BMC’s residential building crashed in the morning, trapping scores of people under the debris.
Before long, the BMC rushed a strong contingent of rescuers and material – including, 50 workers, a dozen fire engines, two rescue van four JCB machines, 10 dumpers and a team of doctors from KEM Hospital — to the mishap site. Simultaneously, Thane fire brigade personnel and at least 65 members of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached the mishap site, to assist the team of rescuers from the BMC.
Constructed in 1980, the building was in a dilapidated state, with it having undergone any major repairs ever since it was built by the market department of the BMC to house its employees.
Though the cause of collapse has not been established, informed BMC sources attributed the crash to its weakened state.
Taking serious cognisance of the collapse, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan reviewed the situation with top State Government and BMC officials, including Additional chief Secretary Ajitkumar Jain, Principal Secretary Ashish Kumar Sinha and Additional Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Jalota. He assured the BMC that the state government would provide all assistance to the civic body in its rescue and relief operations.
BMC’s Mayor Sunil Prabhu, who visited the mishap site and took stock of the rescue and relief operations, announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of those killed in the mishap and said that the civic body would provide free medical treatment to those injured in the mishap.
Friday’s was fifth building crash in the metropolis and neighbouring Thane district during the current monsoon. In the first monsoon mishap this year, 10 persons were killed when a four-storey building “Altaf Mansion” collapsed at Mahim in south-central Mumbai on June 10.
On June 21, a three-storey building crashed at Mumbra in the neighbouring Thane district, leaving 10 persons dead and 14 others injured. The following day, a four-storey building caved in at Dahisar in north Mumbai, claiming seven lives and leaving an equal number of others injured.
In the fourth mishap, three workers were killed and 26 others injured, when a two-storey structure housing a garment factory collapsed in Kalher village near the powerloom town of Bhiwandi in Thane district in the early hours of July 4.
The worst building that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) witnessed during the current year was at Mumbra, near Thane where an unauthorised seven-storey building had collapsed on April 4, killing 74 people and injuring 60-odd others.