According to the fire brigade control room, the Sadaf building near the
JJ Hospital crashed at around 1.15 am, bringing down all 16 flats in a heap. The building was 125 years old and had undergone structural repairs several times.According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the building had undergone partial repairs in 2000. The back portion of the building housing the toilet block had been repaired but not the front portion, survivors of the crash said. The front portion crashed bringing down sleeping occupants.
Though the building had been certified as unsafe for occupation, residents continued to live in these.
Fire brigade personnel were trying to rescue victims from the debris late this evening. It is still not clear how many people are still trapped.
Ordering an inquiry into the incident, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who visited the mishap spot, said the survivors of the crash would be shifted to transit camps. “Compensation will be given to all those people who suffered losses as well as to the families of those who have been killed in the incident. We will also bear hospital expenses,” said Mr Deshmukh.
The Chief Minister noted that there were 19,000 old buildings in South Mumbai. He felt that the government may have to shift people residing in these structures.
Fire and police officials said rescue teams were finding it difficult to reach the structure as roads in the area were narrow. Equipment like fire trucks and excavators were brought in several hours late while rescuers dug into the debris with their bare hands.
The police are now on the lookout for the landlord of the building, Babu Quereshi. “I don’t know where my husband is. Though we repaired the building, it was Allah’s will that the building collapsed,” his wife told reporters at the crash site.
All families residing in the building were tenants who were long-time residents.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner Johny Joseph told reporters at the site that the residents were given notice to vacate the building, but they had ignored it.
