Rajawadi bungalow collapses, two still trapped

Gajanan Bellale, assistant commissioner of N Ward, told HT that the NDRF team was trying to cut down portions of the submerged land with cutters to reach the residents stuck under the debris

MUMBAI: June 25 saw a bungalow collapse in Rajawadi area of Ghatkopar East. Three residents on the third floor were safely evacuated but two others were trapped beneath the debris. One of the two, 94-year-old Alka Palande, was located at around 10.30 pm by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and efforts were on to extricate her.

The bungalow called ‘Prashant’ is owned by the Chapatwala family, which occupies the second floor but was away when the mishap took place. The Palande family occupied the first floor and another family lived on the third floor. The Palandes are tenants who were staying in the bungalow since their house was being redeveloped. (Vijay Bate/HT Photo)

Gajanan Bellale, assistant commissioner of N Ward, told HT that the NDRF team was trying to cut down portions of the submerged land with cutters to reach the residents stuck under the debris.

Although the fire brigade too conducted a thorough search through the day, using a victim location camera by making a cavity in the building, the stranded persons could not be located due to the barriers of the beams and partition walls. The building was cordoned off by the police, and late on Sunday, its demolition was in progress. The Chief Fire Officer (CFO), Deputy CFO with other fire brigade officials were on site.

The bungalow called ‘Prashant’ is owned by the Chapatwala family, which occupies the second floor but was away when the mishap took place. The Palande family occupied the first floor and another family lived on the third floor. The Palandes are tenants who were staying in the bungalow since their house was being redeveloped.

The Palande family comprises husband Naresh, wife Varsha, daughter Tia, son Aryan and Naresh’s 94-year-old mother, Alka. Both Tia and Varsha were away when the incident happened. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Aryan said, “I got stuck amidst some pieces of furniture, but managed to extricate myself. However, my father and grandmother were stranded.”

The three-storey bungalow started tilting at around 9.25 am on Sunday and crashed to the ground at 9.30. The family that occupied the third floor came down with the help of sarees and bedsheets twisted into ropes. The first and second floors were, however, submerged. Haresh Daftary, a local resident, said that he had heard from old-timer residents that the house was constructed over a well, and hence its foundation could be weak.

Chittaranjan Nagar, where the bungalow stood, is among the Mhada single-storeyed structures that were built in the 1960s. In the 1980s, when the redevelopment mania started, many owners added one more storey to their houses. Much later, people began adding more floors, some with the requisite permissions and some illegally. Bellale said he would be submitting a report to MHADA soon.

A Mhada official, when contacted, said that although the bungalow was a Mhada layout, the society had been given conveyance of the land, and the bungalows were ownership ones. “The said bungalow was on ownership along with the land,” he said. “It was not in a dilapidated condition. The plans were approved by the BMC in 1986.”

The Mhada official said that prima facie it appeared that the collapse could be due to “ground settlement”, a technical term that refers to stresses within the earth that could cause it to cave in. “It was an emergency crash due to ground settlement and that’s why the collapse was immediate,” he said.