Bandra building collapse: ‘It was dangerous, but we had nowhere to go’

The occupants of the twostorey structure that collapsed at midnight Wednesday resulting in the death of one person and injuries to 18 others in Bandra knew it was dangerous but had no option so did not move out In fact some of them scared were making a video of the cracks that had developed on the walls after the structure next to it was allegedly demolished when it fellWitnesses and locals also claimed that the adjacent structure was pulled down a week ago by an SRA developer damaging the structure that fell The Bandra police have registered a case against the builder and contractorsShastri Nagar is adjacent to the west side of Bandra railway station The congested slum of more than a few hundred two or threestorey structures has been under redevelopment for the past over 20 years The SRA board mentions that the plan had been proposed in 1994 On Wednesday around 1215 am one of the structures which is on the border of a clear land for SRA development collapsedSami Ahmad Shaikh one of those injuredldquoWe were sitting outside when we heard a loud noise and rushed to see the house collapse We quickly tried to pull those trapped and took them to Bhabha hospitalrdquo said Mohammad Rashid Sheikh a local who got injured while rescuing the occupants He said all the people were on the first and second floors In total 19 people were injured One of them Shahnawaz Aalam 55 was declared brought dead Seventeen people were treated in the OPD One person Noor Alam Shiekh 23 has been admitted and his condition is stableOccupants were labourersThe police said there was a garments manufacturing unit on the ground floor and the first and second floors were occupied by labourers who had shifted from the adjacent huts a few days back after they were demolished for the SRA project The ground floor of the structure remained intact The second storey collapsed on the first A team from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC demolished the remaining part of the structure on ThursdayThe ground floor of the structure was intact but the second storey fell on the first storeyldquoOn June 2 an adjacent structure at the back of the fallen house had been pulled down by the builder to clear the area After that the wall of the house slightly tilted to that side and on June 9 it fellrdquo said Sheikh Sayyad Nazneen who stays next to the collapsed structure told midday there was a common wall between the pulled down house and the collapsed structure ldquoThe plaster on the wall came off and there were big cracks And yesterday the whole structure fell There was even a fire after a short circuit Fortunately it was quickly extinguishedrdquo she saidAll the injured have been moved to a tent at Shastri Nagar SRA cooperative housing society One of the injured Mohammad Aalam said ldquoPeople rescued us and took us to the hospitals In fact we were making a video of the cracks that had developed on the walls after the other structure was demolished when the house fell We were going to send the video to the owner We were scared of staying there But there was no optionrdquoldquordquoI am from Bihar and stayed here for the past 19 years Even Shahnawaz Aalam was from Bihar and the body will be taken to his village todayrdquo he added A senior official from H west ward said ldquoThe land had been handed over to the SRA for redevelopment The letter of intention was given and it is the builderrsquos responsibility to relocate the occupants safelyrdquoAffected residents at a makeshift camp after the mishapAnother official from the BMC who was involved in the rescue operation said that there might be a possibility that the structure was damaged when the adjacent structure was pulled down a few days ago The stability of the structure might have been affected after it lost supportFIR has been lodgedldquoWe have registered a case against the builder and contractors for negligence The builder was identified as Rafiq bhai and contractors were identified as Nasim and Hussain The builder and contractors had demolished a structure adjacent to the house which is why it collapsed We have registered a case for negligence by the builder and contractors So far no one has been arrestedrdquo API Sarvar Shaikh of Bandra police station said19No of occupants in the structureInputs from Shirish Vaktania