Following the court’s directives to evacuate the dilapidated Khandu Niwas in Thane before July 15, Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) started demolishing the building on Wednesday.

The collapse of four-storey building at Dongri on Tuesday alarmed the authorities as well as residents.

Khandu Niwas was completely evacuated on Tuesday and the demolition started on Wednesday. The three-storey building was 35 years old and had three families living there.

Five shopkeepers, who had shops in the building, had approached the court in 2018, following an evacuation notice served by the TMC.

Observing that occupants of dilapidated buildings do not have the right to endanger the life and safety of others by continuing to occupy such dangerous buildings, the Bombay high court had recently rejected plea of five shopkeepers to allow them to continue to occupy a dangerous building for three more months.

“We are in the middle of the rainy season,” said the division bench of Justice SC Dharmadhikari and Justice Gautam Patel while rejecting the plea. “The downpour and to the extent of about 250mm of rain in a single day precludes us from granting the request,” the bench added.

Thirteen occupants of the building, including the five shop keepers, had moved high court last year after the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) issued eviction notices to them on June 11, 2018, and July 31, 2018, calling upon them to forthwith demolish the building as it was in a dangerous condition.

The notices highlighted that the building had developed cracks at several places. The beams were corroded and it was unsafe to allow such a structure to stand. It not only endangered the life of the occupants, but also those of passers-by and neighbours.

The occupants said that though the building was repairable, the owner failed to repair and maintain the building. They also alleged that the notices were issued by the civic authorities acting at behest of the owner, who wanted to get the building vacated to jeopardise their tenancy rights.

Acting on the petition, the high court had on August 6, 2018, temporarily restrained TMC from enforcing the notices and allowed the petitioners to continue living there. The interim order was continued from time to time.

The building consisted of 14 residential premises, of which, three were occupied, and five commercial units all of which are on ground floor and occupied.

TMC had filed a plea for getting the interim order vacated after a team of Veermata Jeejabai Technical Institute carried out structural audit of the building on October 21, 2018, and submitted its report on November 22, 2018, concluding that the repairs, strengthening and retrofitting of the structure will not be techno-economically feasible. The expert team, therefore, recommended reconstruction of the building.

The bench allowed the TMC plea after noticing that the report of the VJTI team indicated that visual inspection and tests carried out at the site revealed that concrete of RCC beams and columns of the building had deteriorated. It had asked the petitioners to vacate the building by July 15.

Maruti Gaikwad, assistant municipal commissioner of Naupada, said, “The building was occupied by three families and had few shops on the ground floor. The families were economically weak and could not afford an alternative accommodation. Eight days ago, we gave them keys to rental homes. The shops were still occupying the building. We had informed them that the building will be demolished on July 17 as per the court’s directives. They vacated the shops on Tuesday. We have started the demolition of the building.”

(Inputs from Megha Pol)

First Published: Jul 18, 2019 00:58 IST