4-yr-old bldg collapses in Bhiwandi, 6 dead

Six persons, including five women, died and 17 others were injured when a three-storey unauthorised building, constructed in 2007, collapsed in Bhiwandi on Tuesday evening.

Six persons, including five women, died and 17 others were injured when a three-storey unauthorised building, constructed in 2007, collapsed in Bhiwandi on Tuesday evening.

Among the five women who died were Shaira Shaikh, 22; Naushad Shaikh, 18; and Sana Shaikh, 18. The building, whose name could not be verified even through police and local residents, is located near Glory English High School at Nayi Basti Gautam Compound on Kalyan road.

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Civic officials and local residents traded blame over the collapse. “It was a three-storey unauthorised structure. Additional construction was done on the building without the civic body’s permission,” said Achyut Hange, Bhiwandi-Nizampura Municpal Corporation commissioner. When it was constructed in 2007, the building was one-storeyed. Two more floors were added in the following years. In March, the corporation certified the building as dangerous and issued an eviction notice to its residents. “But the other party obtained a stay order,” Hange said.

Residents, on the other hand, blamed former corporator Sayyed Naseer for the collapse. Rukhsana Anari, whose 70-year-old mother moved in to a third-flloor flat in the building six months ago attributed the collapse to poor quality of construction. “The land belonged to one Jagdish, but the construction was done by former corporator Sayyed Naseer. Both are to be blamed,” Anari said.