Kalyan-Dombivli civic body to demolish extremely dangerous buildings

The Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation chief Vijay Suryavanshi has directed all the ward officials to take up demolition of extremely dangerous buildings on a

The Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation chief Vijay Suryavanshi has directed all the ward officials to take up demolition of extremely dangerous buildings on a priority basis.

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“A notice was served to the shops and residents to vacate the buildings which are extremely dangerous. Three days ago, some portions of the residential structure located at Ambedkar Road near Krishan Cinema had collapsed. Taking note of this, we initiated the demolition without further delay,” said Bhagaji Bhangre, ward officer, KDMC.

As per the dangerous buildings list prepared by the civic body, there are 187 extremely dangerous buildings and 284 dangerous buildings compared to 191 and 282, respectively, last year.

Although the civic body has listed the extremely dangerous buildings in its vicinity, there is no proper record on how many of them have been vacated and how many of them are occupied.

“We are preparing a list of how many of these extremely dangerous buildings are occupied. We are again going to inspect those buildings that are very unsafe and start taking measures to avoid any incident. As of now, we have all the necessary equipment, machinery and manpower for taking up the demolition work. The only concern is to deal with the residents who are still occupying such structures,” said Sunil Pawar, assistant commissioner, KDMC.

The KDMC initiated demolition work on three extremely dangerous structures in the twin cities this week on the backdrop of the Bhiwandi building collapse. This includes a ground-plus-three storey residential building Sai Leela and Sai Prabhat in Dombivli (W) and a ground-plus-three storey structure at Ambedkar road, Shivaji chowk, Kalyan (W).

Followed by the Bhiwandi building collapse that claimed 38 lives and injured 25, the Bombay High Court (HC) had taken suo moto (on its own motion) cognisance of the building collapse at Bhiwandi and initiated a public interest litigation (PIL), where all the seven civic bodies in and around Mumbai have been arraigned as respondents.

The state government and the seven civic bodies have been asked to respond regarding the steps taken to check illegal constructions and dilapidated buildings in their respective jurisdictions.

Out of the ten wards of KDMC, the C ward comprising major part of Kalyan’s west side has the highest number of extremely dangerous buildings. It includes areas like Joshi Baug, Shivaji Chowk, Ahilya Bai Chowk, Gandhi Chowk, Shankar Rao Chowk, Sahajanand Chowk, Lal Chowki, Tilak Chowk, Ambedkar Road, Valipeer Road and Old Kalyan.

This particular ward has total 102 extremely dangerous structures and 54 dangerous structures.

In Kalyan-Dombivli, one of the major hurdles civic officials face is conflict between tenants and building owners. Due to lack of alternative space to shift, residents opt to live in unsafe buildings.

Unsafe buildings:

Total structures: 471

Extremely dangerous: 187

Dangerous: 284