Of 721 shaky buildings, 132 are in Byculla: BMC survey

A pre-monsoon survey conducted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has concluded that 721 buildings, including those owned by

A pre-monsoon survey conducted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has concluded that 721 buildings, including those owned by

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the BMC, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and private individuals, are dilapidated and vulnerable.

The survey revealed that 132 of these buildings are located in Byculla (E ward) alone. The BMC is toying with the idea of cutting water and power supply to these buildings to force residents to vacate them. Twenty-four of these buildings have been identified as extremely dangerous and are likely to be evacuated.

Of the 721 buildings, 328 are cess buildings that fall under MHADA, while 278 are privately owned. The remaining are municipal property.

The survey revealed that the island city has 379 vulnerable buildings, the western suburbs have 193 and the eastern suburbs have 149.

“We will evacuate buildings owned by the BMC,” said Ashish Kumar Singh additional municipal commissioner in charge of the island city.

The BMC has decided to be strict with dangerous buildings and had planned to cut water supply and electricity to make residents vacate these buildings.

City Engineer L.S. Vhatkar said, “It is MHADA’s responsibility to evacuate their buildings. We will inform fire brigade about other buildings to be evacuated, which are most dangerous to live in and then will disconnect the electricity and water.”

The data on dangerous buildings, released by the BMC’s disaster management cell, is based on its pre-monsoon survey.

The BMC has identified 152 places that can be used as temporary shelters for residents of crumbling buildings.