Flyover tragedy: KMC asks residents of five highrises to vacate premises

Senior civic officials of the Building department visited the spot and later issued a notice asking the occupants to vacate the houses temporarily. KMC officials said that as more girders would be removed so it could be risky for the residents to stay in the buildings. Once the girders are removed then they can come and occupy their houses.

Meanwhile, the KMC on Friday put up boards declaring several houses near the construction as “dangerous and insecure.” 

A senior civic official said that on May 26, 2009 a similar board was put up on 150 buildings. But their owners did not take any initiative to repair them. So once again a similar board was put up on Friday. He said an old high-rise at 1, Vivekananda Road had needed immediate repair. But the owners did not take any initiative. Similarly three buildings at 265 A, B and C Rabindra Sarani also required immediate repair. 

The official said that in most of the buildings the original owners had died and there was litigation among the heirs. The buildings are looked after by the tenants’ associations. As repairing them would involve huge money, neither the owners nor the tenants are interested in repairing them. The official said that there were nearly 3000 old buildings in boroughs IV and V that cover the central business districts. 

The KMC has amended its building rules giving facilities to the owners to pull down the old structures to make rooms for new ones provided they are ready to rehabilitate the tenants. 

He said that the average age of buildings in boroughs IV and V would be 100 years. “With this backdrop some serious step should be taken to either restore or pull down old dilapidated structures in the city,” he remarked.