E-Paper
Thane woman injured as gallery of dangerous building collapses
A 42-year-old woman suffered major injuries on Wednesday after the second-floor gallery of a ground-plus-two-storey building collapsed in Thane.
A 42-year-old woman suffered major injuries on Wednesday after the second-floor gallery of a ground-plus-two-storey building collapsed in Thane.
Most residents of Amar Sadan, which is 45 years old and was on the Thane Municipal Corporation’s (TMC) list of dangerous buildings in the city, had evacuated it. However, four of the 16 flats and two shops on the ground floor remained occupied.
The injured, Surayya Akram Shaikh, who suffered injuries to her back and left leg, was rushed to a civic hospital and later shifted to Sir JJ Hospital for further treatment. Shaikh was in the gallery on the second floor, talking on the phone, when the floor beneath her collapsed around 10.30am. Santosh Kadam, chief of Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC), said, “Two women, Shaikh and Jainab Riaz Shaikh, 45, were stuck in the incident. Both were rescued immediately by the Thane Disaster Response Force, fire brigade and RDMC team. The remaining building is also in a dangerous condition and has been evacuated.”
Jainab was not hurt in the incident.
Shankar Patole, ward officer of Uthalsar, said they had declared the building was in C3 category — meaning it required minor repairs —in March this year. “We had asked the society to conduct a structural audit and repair the building. In August, the structural audit report revealed that the building is in C2A category, meaning that the residents will have to evacuate it immediately and repair the structure. Most of the residents had evacuated the building, but four families still stayed back,” said Patole.
The civic officials started the demolition of the building in the afternoon on Wednesday, after the residents were allowed to remove their valuables and some of the belongings.
The residents had undertaken repair work of the building a month ago and a scaffolding was installed around it. Nasir Khan, 45, who owns a shop on the ground floor and is also the contractor in-charge of the building repair work, said, “The scaffolding had loosened on one side of the building today. When I went to tighten it and close the access of the side of the building where the repair work was going on, the gallery collapsed before my eyes. We saw Shaikh fall with the gallery while Jainab was stuck on the second floor.” Another resident, Mumtaj Shaikh, 36, said she had stepped out at the time of the incident, while her daughter was home. “I heard the news and rushed home. As we reside on the opposite side, my daughter was saved.” Mohammad Riyaz Shaikh, who resided in the building for over 14 years, claimed that despite knowing the building was dangerous, some residents continued to stay there as they did not have the money to buy a new home. “We believed that the building could be repaired and we could continue to stay. TMC started demolishing the building and we are homeless,” he said.
.
