We thought a tsunami or earthquake had hit us, say residents of Andheri West

Mehrotra said that people were badly shaken by the mishap. Sudipta Sarkar, a resident of Building No 20 on the fourth floor, had just come back home at 3.15 pm when she heard the sound of gushing water. “I saw residents from the neighbouring wing running helter-skelter,” she said. “Then I heard a loud cascade of water

Mumbai: Following the water main burst at Adarsh Nagar Road in Andheri West on Wednesday, due to which water gushed a hundred feet upwards with tremendous force, the flats of a housing society in the vicinity have been rendered completely inhabitable. Five cars were also damaged after a coconut tree crashed due to the water pressure.

Mehrotra said that people were badly shaken by the mishap. Sudipta Sarkar, a resident of Building No 20 on the fourth floor, had just come back home at 3.15 pm when she heard the sound of gushing water. “I saw residents from the neighbouring wing running helter-skelter,” she said. (Vijay Bate/HT Photo)

When pebbles and stones along with gushing water lashed their homes on Wednesday, anxious residents from three buildings of Silver Sands Apartments in Lokhandwala first assumed that they had been hit by a tsunami. “I heard the din of falling water,” said Rajan Mehrotra. “I first thought it was heavy rain but there was also a hailstorm-like noise. When I looked out of the window, I saw that Building No 19 was covered with water. The water had reached 100 feet.”

Mehrotra went to the terrace and saw that the terraces of three buildings were full of water. “Furniture in houses from the seventh to the third floors and cars parked inside the compound were damaged,” he said. “The force of water was so great that the ceiling of our office and the garden was torn down as well as the society’s boundary wall. The seepage on the walls is so bad that we will need to conduct a structural stability audit of the buildings.”

Radhika Rao, a seventh-floor resident of Building No 20, is currently at a hotel with her parents, as her flat is inundated with water. She will enter her home only when the lift is made operational. Dhaval Shah, president, Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizens’ Association, said that the parents, along with a few seniors, exited Building No 20 from the interlinked terrace of the neighbouring building, from where they took the lift and made a safe exit. Eighty percent of the residents are seniors.

Harbhajan Kaur Kalsi, also a resident of Building No 20, said that her sofas and beds had become soggy. “My sister thought it was an earthquake or tsunami or even a building collapse,” she said. “Even after the incident was over, we kept hearing the sound of gurgling water in our minds. The BMC didn’t show up for 45 minutes. We had a sleepless night and are still in fear.”

Meanwhile, the BMC team worked continuously for eight hours and completed the repair work of the aqueduct. Water supply has been restored in Lokhandwala, Millat Nagar and SVP Nagar, Mhada.