38 dead, at least 5,000 left homeless in more than 60 slab collapse incidents in Ulhasnagar in last 10 years

As slab collapse incidents are on the rise, Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation had made structural audit mandatory for buildings constructed with inferior quality sand and that are 15-20 years old

ULHASNAGARIn the last decade, 38 people have died in slab collapse incidents in more than 60 buildings in Ulhasnagar. The number has increased since last year wherein 15 people were killed after building slabs collapsed on them. Apart from the deaths, 5,000-6,000 people have lost their shelter in these incidents. Such buildings are not more than 15-20 years old. Most of them were built with inferior quality sand in the late 1990s.

Sai Sadan Building in Ulhasnagar, whose slab collapsed on Sunday. Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation had made structural audit mandatory for buildings constructed with inferior quality sand and that are 15-20 years old. More than 60 slab collapse incidents have been recorded in the last 10 years. (PRAMOD TAMBE/HT PHOTO)

While the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation had made a structural audit mandatory for all these buildings constructed with inferior quality sand, it has no record of how many people have actually submitted the audit report.

UMC’s apathy

The death of a 60-year-old man, Gopal Gabra, and the injuries to his 58-year-old wife on Sunday after the slab of their Sai Sadan building came crashing down highlights the apathy of the civic body.

In a survey undertaken by a dedicated panel formed by the UMC, a total of 505 structures have been identified as those built between 1994 and 1998 using inferior quality sand named Ulwe. This sand does not mix well with the cement and loosens after a certain period. These buildings were built before UMC was established. Thus, they are not even on record, according to the civic body.

Residents and activists claimed that apart from serving notices and taking some temporary measures, there are no permanent solutions over the last decade. They have claimed that the civic body needs to form a proper policy on providing transit camps to rehabilitate people, demolish dangerous buildings and regularise illegal buildings that would safeguard the redevelopment rights of the citizens.

There are many families who were rendered homeless but still continue to reside in the same city with the hope of finding a permanent shelter after the old building has been redeveloped.

Jetho Gabra, the 53-year-old brother of the deceased Gopal, said, “My brother’s family has lost its shelter. For now, they have shifted to a rental place. They do not have the option of investing in a new house. His son is working but it is still difficult to add additional rent in their budget as they had a place of their own till now.”

Savings get buried in rubble

Bharti Kodwani, 37, was in shock when she was told that her 25-year-old building was dangerous and needed to be demolished. She had to vacate her Shiv Leela Building in Ulhasnagar 1 along with 54 other families, after which the building was demolished.

She said, “The building was not even 30-years-old. We had invested our savings in the building. Four months ago, when we were asked to leave our building with our families, we were clueless. Most like us have shifted to a nearby building in the same locality so that in case there is any development regarding our homes, we can be abreast. People chose to not leave the city just because of their businesses and children schooling.”

Bharti, who is into catering business, is paying a monthly rent of ₹19,000 and living with her family of nine people in the same locality. Bharti lived in her building for 15 years and has no documents of the flats. She was also not aware if the building was a legal one.

“Some politician was involved and I was assured that the building is legal. We fell prey to their words and bought the flat at a low cost,” she said.

The Pradhan family of six people were all displaced as one wing of their Mahek Apartments on Link Road, Ulhasnagar camp 3, tilted. They took more than a month to find a proper shelter.

“The entire family was displaced with my parents going to a relative’s place, me going to my in-laws’ place and my sister to her friend’s place to live for a month. Today, we live near Mahek Apartments for a monthly rent of ₹20,000. We have no clue if we will get our permanent shelter back but we are hoping for something positive from the authorities,” said Vicky Pradhan, 35, a businessman.

“Even though the matter of regularisation of buildings in Ulhasnagar is at the government level, we fail to understand why the civic body has not been able to provide temporary homes for the residents. There are zero efforts taken by the civic body in terms of providing shelters to the affected residents,” added Pradhan.

UMC chief asks all to get audit done

Following the recent incident, the UMC commissioner, Aziz Shaikh, has now assured to reach out to all those buildings that have not done structural audits and ask them to get it done.

“We will be reaching out to all those buildings whose audit is not done. In this recent case also, the audit was not done. There are many such buildings that need an audit. Our officials will be working on it. Those buildings that are below 30 years old will also be checked by our team,” he said.

Last year, the UMC served notices to thousands of buildings that were built in the late 1990s asking to do the structural audit. However, the civic body had no clue as to how many have done it.

“Asking the residents to carry out the audit is just an eye wash as the civic body does not even know if the audit is done. What we want is that the civic body itself conducts the audit for all the buildings immediately and later takes necessary steps,” said advocate Raj Chandwani, founder of Swachch Giri Foundation, an NGO.

He added,” In the 1990s, when people bought flats in Ulhasnagar, they were not aware of the legal aspects or of the inferior quality sand and they only looked for affordable homes. They don’t have proper documents of the flats. Now, after these incidents, people are more vigilant and ask for legal documents. Also, the civic body did not stop the illegal buildings from coming up in the city.”

In 2003, the Maharashtra State government had formed a committee to study illegal constructions in Ulhasnagar. Around 6,000 structures were found illegal then. Out of these, 855 structures were selected for demolition. In December 2006, the Shanti Palace at Gol Maidan that had 21 flats and five shops was the first to be razed down. As the civic body continued razing the structures, local residents protested in large numbers and the work was halted.

Regularisation

Further, the State Government, in January 2006, brought out an ordinance to regularise 855 illegal structures in this Sindhi-dominated suburb. Only 164 of the 855 structures have been regularised in four years. The process had come to a halt in August 2009 due to the elections.

There are 600 buildings that cannot be regularised under the ordinance because they lack in basic aspects like the height, parking, extra margins and setbacks or involve a change of user or extra FSI. While over 500 structures have an FSI of over 4, around 140 structures are standing on public land reserved for roads, nullahs and playgrounds.

Last month, in a major relief to over five lakh people living in dangerous and illegal buildings in Ulhasnagar city, the Maharashtra Chief minister Eknath Shinde gave a nod for regularisation and redevelopment of the structures.

“We have not yet received the government resolution on this decision by the State Government. We will have to wait for the same to take any further steps for the regularisation of the structures. This will take time,” said Shaikh.