Shanti Upvan demolition begins

Residents of Shanti Upvan building, many of whom are still waiting to collect their belongings from their homes, were left teary-eyed on Friday when the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) initiated demolition of the F wing of the building

Dombivli: Residents of Shanti Upvan building, many of whom are still waiting to collect their belongings from their homes, were left teary-eyed on Friday when the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) initiated demolition of the F wing of the building.

KDMC starts demolition of F-Wing of Shanti Upvan building, five days after it developed cracks and left 250 families of the complex homeless, at Nilje, Dombivli, at Kalyan, in India, on Friday, March 10, 2023. (Photo by Pramod Tambe/HT Photo) (Pramod Tambe/HT Photo)

The KDMC with a manpower of 20 people and 16 police personnel initiated the demolition of the F wing using a jaw crusher. The team has so far managed to demolish parts of the upper floors up to the fifth floor..

Since Sunday morning, the 250 families of the Shanti Upvan building in Dombivli, were hoping to get their belongings back from their flats, after the F wing of the building developed major cracks on Saturday late night. While the residents of other wings got the chance to collect their belongings, the residents of F wing were left with no other option but to wait as most of the homes in the wing could not be accessed as their doors had jammed due to the structural imbalance of the building.

On Friday, angry residents had a tiff with the demolition team several times. They were demanding that the demolition be stopped and residents be allowed to retrieve their belongings.

Chandan Thakur, who lives on the seventh floor of the F wing said, “The only reason why we are opposing this is that the KDMC has not done any audit of the building before demolishing it. Also, there is not clear communication on whether we will get our stuff or not. At least 25 families are still waiting to get their basic documents. I am one of them. I cannot shift to a new place without my important belongings. The KDMC has failed miserably in dealing with the situation and winning our trust.”

On the other hand, Bharat Pawar, KDMC ward officer, said, “We will have to do further demolition forcefully as residents are not cooperating. They were constantly stopping us from work. Whatever recovery of stuff could be done was done. After the demolition work, when the clearing of debris will be carried out, we will return the stuff to respective residents. We need the cooperation of the residents to do the work.”