Roof of old building caves in, none injured

KOLKATA: The roof of an old dilapidated building beside Ramrik Hospital in south Kolkata caved in on Sunday afternoon. No one was injured. The workers of the Disaster Management department and Kolkata Municipal Corporation began clearing the debris.

The roof collapsed around 2.30pm. Police cordoned off the area and allowed the civic workers to remove the debris. Senior civic officials said the old house had not been repaired for many years. Trees have come up all around the building. Despite receiving a notice from the KMC requesting the tenants to vacate the building, they continued to live there.

They said the state government had acquired the building and handed it over to Ramrik Hospital. An extension of the hospital would be set up after pulling down the old structure. The tenants of the building said they had deposited the monthly rent to the rent control and would not vacate the house until alternative arrangements were made for them.

Senior civic officials said a portion of the building had collapsed 10 days ago and two people had been injured. They said as the building had not been repaired for many years, the rain water system had become defunct. As a result, the rain water accumulated on the roof increasing its weight. The structure, being old, collapsed.

They said the civic authorities had issued notices on the owners of many old and insecure buildings and requested them to vacate them to avert an accident. There are more than 500 dangerous and insecure buildings and around 2000 old and dilapidated buildings in Kolkata.