The site of building collapse at South Mumbai’s Bhendi Bazar on Thursday morning. (Source: Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)
A day before Eid-ul-adha or Bakri Eid, the overwhelming feeling around Bhendi Bazar, where 33 people died in a building collapse, was of gloom. The dominant feeling among local residents whose buildings are part of the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust’s (SBUT) cluster redevelopment project is to avoid a fate which the residents of Husaini building on Pakmodia Street suffered when it came crashing down on Thursday morning.
“Everyone is only thinking about the redevelopment project, but with a feeling of anger now,” said Farida Mansuri, a local resident and member of the Mohalla Committee at JJ Marg police station.
Since its announcement, the project has become synonymous with a historic market and residential locality in South Mumbai famed for its food.
Apart from the holy month of Ramzan when Mumbaikars from all over the city flock to Bhendi Bazaar to sample its array of food, the lanes around the Dawoodi Bohra community’s Rahudat Tahera mausoleum teem with hungry people thronging the street-side meat joints and sweetmeat shops.
Bhendi Bazaar is also home to the more-than-century-old ice cream shop Taj Ice Cream. Pakmodia Street, where Husaini building stood until Thursday morning, is also home to the family of the fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. His younger brother Iqbal Kaskar continues to live in a structure just two buildings away from the site of the collapse.
An address which has gained notoriety due to its infamous former resident, it was also the site of a fatal shooting in May 2011, when two men shot and killed Kaskar’s bodyguard Arif Bael.
“This has always been a very safe area where you can walk around without fear even after dark,” said Mansuri.
Since Thursday, however, she has noticed friends living in buildings that are to be redeveloped becoming increasingly anxious.
“Now everyone wants a quick solution for their buildings. Many people are saying that either their buildings should be evacuated immediately or MHADA should carry out repairs. Par sab ko 10x 10 ki kholi hi jannat lagti hai. Unko 400 square foot ka ghar nahi chahiye. (But everyone is content in their 10×10 feet homes. No one wants 400 square foot homes),” she said.
Social worker Salman Kazi, whose office is right across the road from Pakmodia Street, said that harried locals have been besieging him since Thursday. “Everyone wants to work out a quick solution with the SBUT because no one wants to sell their home and be shifted to far ends of the city. But finding a solution will take time,” he said.
Kazi had stepped out his home to feed his goats on Thursday morning when the building collapsed. “After seeing so many bodies, I am in no mood to celebrate. I will give away my goats,” he said.
Another local resident Zeeshan Qureshi, who was among the several civilians to assist in the search and rescue operations, said that Saturday’s festival was not important. “Festivals come and go every year but the lives lost will never come back,” he said.
