1 dead, four hurt as portion of nearly 100-year-old building collapses in Grant Road
The balconies of the fourth, third and second floors at one end of the building came down crashing slowly, the debris fell onto the roof of the first floor and on the road adjacent, bordering the ticket counter of Grant Road railway station
Mumbai: An 80-year-old woman was killed, and four others sustained injuries after portions of three balconies of a nearly 100-year-old residential building, Rubinissa Manzil, at Grant Road came crashing down on Saturday after a heavy spell of rain. Thirty-seven residents, including a child, were evacuated after the collapse at around 10:30 am. Despite BMC’s notice to the tenants and the landlord to vacate the dangerous four-storey building at Sleater Road latest by June 7 this year, many still continued to occupy it.
The balconies of the fourth, third and second floors at one end of the building came down crashing slowly, the debris fell onto the roof of the first floor and on the road adjacent, bordering the ticket counter of Grant Road railway station.
“At first, I heard something falling and I presumed some construction work was underway,” said Adil Hathiwala, 43, a fourth-floor resident living in the flat next to one whose balcony caved in. “As smoke and dust rose from it, we went to the window and looked down on the mess. One side of my balcony had also fallen, and cracks started to emerge on the floors of my hall slightly.”
The slabs of the balcony fell on a passerby, an 80-year-old woman, identified as Veera Wadia, a resident of Hormuz building on Sleater Road. She was taken to Bhatia Hospital, where she was declared dead.
A resident of the building Vijaykumar Nishad, 25, was perched on the fourth-floor balcony when the collapse occurred, and he fell with the slabs onto the roof of the first floor. Fortunately, he was not hurt much, and was treated and discharged from Bhatia Hospital. Another injured, Niket Shah, 26, was similarly discharged. Two others, Atul Shah, 55 and Siddhesh Palija, 30, were admitted to the ICU at Bhatia Hospital and Breach Candy Hospital respectively.
The rescue
Within fifteen minutes after the incident, the fire brigade arrived and began the rescue operations, taking out 37 residents from the first to the four floors. Turntable ladders were used, as the staircase at the collapsed section of the building was beyond use. “There was a lot of havoc, so the rescue was completed within two hours,” said Hathiwala. The debris also damaged a few two-wheelers parked under the building.
No stranger to evacuation notices
A cessed building built in the British-era came under the jurisdiction of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). The building’s block is divided into three sections with separate entrances and staircases, one of which took the brunt of the collapse. Each of the floors in the different sections had two 1,200 square feet flats, while the ground floor had shops and kholis, referring to smaller sized rooms of around 220 square feet size. In total, it had 49 premises, said Vaishali Gadpale, a public relations officer from MHADA.
The almost century-old building was no stranger to notices about its precarious condition. “Repetitive repair works had been carried out in the building and exhausted its repair cess,” said Gadpale. It has reached the permissible ceiling limit (PCL) permitted for repairs for cessed buildings, which are ₹4,000 per square metre.
In 2021, the landlord and tenants were issued a warning/excess notice to pay up over ₹1 crore for further repairs ( ₹1,01,86,960). However, no response was received.
Previously in May 2023, a notice was issued to the building’s landlords/owners under Section 79A of Mhada Act, demanding compulsory redevelopment, but there was no response. The tenants were then given the same notice on December 26, 2023, to a similar response. Another followed in June this year.
An MBRRB official said they would now pull down the remaining building. A top BMC officer said that MBRRB should have got the building vacated instead of just giving notices.
The blame game
The residents, however, blamed everything on the landlords. Hathiwala admitted the building was in a bad condition, but he was not aware of the Mhada notices. “The landlord, Abu Sufiyan, has to do something. The British have built this building and the residents have been living like this for so many years now,” he said. Born in the same 1,200 square feet house, as was his mother, he claimed that he did not have another house to turn to if they were to vacate.
Another resident of the ground floor, Sarita Thomas, 54, said, “My mother, who is over 70, was born here. I had come to visit when the collapse happened, but as we are on the ground floor and at the end away from the portion that fell, we could get out easily. The other families on the ground floor also got out without problem.”
Speaking about the condition of the building, she said, “The building is too old now, it cannot be repaired much more. A few years ago, the walls were cemented and plastered, but that doesn’t make a difference to the pillars for the better. It stops leaks for a few years, which then comes back, and then bamboos are tied for support and it’s a big problem. But we can’t just lock our doors and move; the landlord can then kick us out at any time, and we will be left with nothing. We need another good alternative because we are leaving.”
Another ground floor resident who did not want to be named, however, defended the building saying their part of the building had been properly repaired, and it was only the portion that collapsed that was in a bad condition. “That part was populated by old Parsis who refused to do repairs as not many live there all the time, and they didn’t want any change. But our portion is alright,” she insisted.
Others reported that quite a few of the houses were empty, and many were frequented by residents only occasionally in a week.
A resident who runs a children’s academy in the building said the landlord had not informed her about its dilapidated condition. “I have started to look for other places to run my academy. Luckily due to heavy rain I had cancelled today’s class thus averting the disaster for the 80 children.”
Gadpale added the residents were offered temporary accommodation at a transit camp in Santosh Nagar, Oshiwara. While some residents said the landlord had arrived and was talking to MHADA, they did not know his exact whereabouts nor did they have his contact.
With inputs from Yogesh Naik