Portion of dilapidated building in Margao collapses, none hurt

MARGAO: A portion of an old run-down building, Casa Menezes, located near Gandhi market in Margao, collapsed in the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. No casualties were reported.
A part of the rear side of the building came crashing down on the kitchen and washroom of a hotel on its ground floor, while also damaging a part of the building, Guru Ashish, located next to it.
The upper floors of the dilapidated building are usually used by migrant labourers and the homeless as shelter during the night. As the building becomes uninhabitable during the rain on account of waterlogged floors and leaking roofs, there were no occupants in the building at the time of the mishap. Sources said that a major tragedy was averted as the incident occurred during the night.
“The hotel on the ground floor is patronised by a large number of customers. One can only imagine what could have happened had the incident occurred during day time,” a resident of the area said.
Salcete mamlatdar Prataprao Gaunker visited the site and directed the shop owners of the building to shut their units even as police cordoned the area.
Chief officer of Margao Municipal Council (MMC) Agnelo Fernandes later issued an order under provisions contained in the Goa Municipalities Act 1968 directing the owner of Casa Menezes building to vacate the entire building with immediate effect as “there is every possibility of collapse of the remaining part, thereby causing loss of human lives and property.” The building owner has also been directed to submit a structural stability certificate of the building and to carry out repairs to or secure the structure within 30 days.
The owners and occupants of the adjoining building, Guru Ashish, have also been directed by the MMC, by a separate order, to vacate all the shops and flats in the building with immediate effect and to submit a similar structural stability certificate of the building within 7 days.
Following the incident the Shadow Council for Margao demanded a “review and reassessment of the dilapidated and dangerous structures and buildings in the city followed by appropriate action”.
“A list of around 22 unsafe structures was prepared by MMC around nine years ago. When we got access to the list In 2014, we had charged that selected buildings where interests of real estate developers lay were conveniently figuring in that list, while several other structures in much worse conditions were excluded,” Savio Coutinho, convener of the Shadow Council said. The building structure that collapsed, too, didn’t figure in the list, he said.
Chief officer Fernandes also couldn’t confirm if the collapsed building was among the ones declared unsafe by the MMC. “I will have to check the records,” he said.