Thane building collapse:
The building collapse in Mumbra could have been avoided had all the authorities taken timely action. For instance when the work in the seven-storey illegal building was in full swing, a local activist Mangal Patil clicked the pictures of the building along with other buildings in the neighbourhood and sent it to the Thane municipal office, the police station and even the Chief Minister's office.
"I sent the pictures along with the details of the building on March 18. However, no one responded," said Patil. He claimed that the builders built the building in connivance with local politicians.
Patil's claim is not far off the mark. In Mumbra, which has a population of nine lakh, nearly 95 per cent of buildings are illegal.
In fact in Thane city itself there are around 30 per cent illegal buildings. With housing prices going through the roof unscrupulous builders have been making a fast buck by building structures within three to six months. The modus operandi is simple a land is identified by the builder who has already booked in materials like cement, steel and other materials.
"The work usually start during a public holiday or during the weekends. Public holidays and weekends are chosen because even if someone complains to the local civic ward office, then the ward office can tell the complainant that they won't be able to attend to the complaint since it's a holiday," said a retired civic official.
A case in point is the Mumbra building, after it fell the Thane Municipal authorities conveniently shifted responsibilities claiming that the building was not on TMC property but on forest land and that it was the Forest Department that should have demolished the building.
In many instances the builder has already got his clients ready even before the building construction is completed.
"The builder will not start construction unless 30 to 40 per cent of the flats are prebooked simply because he wants to move away from the project even before the civic authorities take action. This is one of the reasons why illegal buildings sprung up so fast as they want to sell the flats and don't want to get caught in the legal hassles," said the civic official.
An outright illegal building will have flats that are half the price of that a building built with all permissions or 40 per cent lower the cost, depending on the area. For instance, in Kalwa near Mumbra the price of a one room kitchen flat isRs.18 lakh. While in a legal building in the same area it would costRs.25 to 28 lakhs for the same space," said a builder from Kalwa who is in to these illegal constructions.
Flats in the Mumbra building which fell were supposed to be sold forRs.4 toRs.8 lakhs, however, they were not sold, the two builders in order to maximise their profits and prevent their building from being demolished decided to rent out parts of the building. This is because the municipal authorities are more reluctant to demolish a building with people staying in it.
If the building crashes there are always scape goats to be found for instance the Chief Minister on Friday announced the suspension of one civic official from Thane and a local police official for being responsible for the building collapse.
The building collapse in Mumbra could have been avoided had all the authorities taken timely action. For instance when the work in the seven-storey illegal building was in full swing, a local activist Mangal Patil clicked the pictures of the building along with other buildings in the neighbourhood and sent it to the Thane municipal office, the police station and even the Chief Minister's office.
"I sent the pictures along with the details of the building on March 18. However, no one responded," said Patil. He claimed that the builders built the building in connivance with local politicians.
Patil's claim is not far off the mark. In Mumbra, which has a population of nine lakh, nearly 95 per cent of buildings are illegal.
In fact in Thane city itself there are around 30 per cent illegal buildings. With housing prices going through the roof unscrupulous builders have been making a fast buck by building structures within three to six months. The modus operandi is simple a land is identified by the builder who has already booked in materials like cement, steel and other materials.
"The work usually start during a public holiday or during the weekends. Public holidays and weekends are chosen because even if someone complains to the local civic ward office, then the ward office can tell the complainant that they won't be able to attend to the complaint since it's a holiday," said a retired civic official.
A case in point is the Mumbra building, after it fell the Thane Municipal authorities conveniently shifted responsibilities claiming that the building was not on TMC property but on forest land and that it was the Forest Department that should have demolished the building.
In many instances the builder has already got his clients ready even before the building construction is completed.
"The builder will not start construction unless 30 to 40 per cent of the flats are prebooked simply because he wants to move away from the project even before the civic authorities take action. This is one of the reasons why illegal buildings sprung up so fast as they want to sell the flats and don't want to get caught in the legal hassles," said the civic official.
An outright illegal building will have flats that are half the price of that a building built with all permissions or 40 per cent lower the cost, depending on the area. For instance, in Kalwa near Mumbra the price of a one room kitchen flat isRs.18 lakh. While in a legal building in the same area it would costRs.25 to 28 lakhs for the same space," said a builder from Kalwa who is in to these illegal constructions.
Flats in the Mumbra building which fell were supposed to be sold forRs.4 toRs.8 lakhs, however, they were not sold, the two builders in order to maximise their profits and prevent their building from being demolished decided to rent out parts of the building. This is because the municipal authorities are more reluctant to demolish a building with people staying in it.
If the building crashes there are always scape goats to be found for instance the Chief Minister on Friday announced the suspension of one civic official from Thane and a local police official for being responsible for the building collapse.
No comments:
Post a Comment