Mhada puts out list of island city’s 18 dangerous structures, asks tenants to move out

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) on Wednesday declared 18 buildings in the island city as ‘extremely dangerous’ and asked the residents

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) on Wednesday declared 18 buildings in the island city as ‘extremely dangerous’ and asked the residents to move out immediately from the premises. This is a part of its annual pre-monsoon survey conducted by Mhada.

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A total number of 540 tenants which include 317 residential and 223 commercial tenants have been asked to vacate their premises. These structures are located in places like Girguam, Khetwadi, Nagpada, VP Road and Jacob Circle.

According to Vinod Ghosalkar, chairman, Mumbai repair and reconstruction board, Mhada, the residents need to move out immediately. “They should move out immediately before the rains. We might resort to using force to vacate the building. We will not allow them to risk their lives,” said Ghosalkar. He said that Mhada has constructed transit accommodation for them in the Western suburbs of Gorai and Magathane.

Of the 18 buildings, seven structures which featured in last year’s list including the infamous Esplanade Mansion, are also repeated this year.

However, the residents are unwilling to move out of the premises citing the lack of trust in the housing body. “How can we leave South Mumbai and settle in Gorai and Magathane areas? Our children have schools here and even we have jobs nearby. Mhada should settle us in South Mumbai itself,” said a resident of Nagpada.

His fear is not unfounded as thousands of residents who shifted to transit camps are still languishing there for decades. Also, Mhada has not given the timeline on when they can return to their original premises.

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This time the number of ‘Extremely dangerous Structures’ has gone down to 18 from 23 last year. The number was 7, 9 and 11 in 2018, 2017 and 2016 respectively.

The infamous Esplanade mansion once again features in the list. This is a heritage structure and repairs are not being undertaken as the cost of repairs of such structures is very high compared to normal structures.

Mhada has warned that it will use force to drive out residents as the later are living in risky state.

The residents contend they will not shift to suburban areas like Gorai and Magathane as it would mean permanently shifting to suburbs.