When dna asked civic officials about the difference between dangerous and dilapidated buildings and which are more prone to collapse, the answer was both are equally prone, but dilapidated means 'in immediate danger'.
Krishna Niwas (in pic) in Naupada, Thane, collapsed around 2 am on Tuesday, killing 12 people and injuring seven others. The three-storey building was 50 years old and due for redevelopment.
This was the second building collapse in Thane district in two weeks.
By the Thane Municipal Corporation's (TMC) own admission, there are 2,566 more dangerous buildings and 58 dilapidated ones in the city. Of this, residents of 38 dilapidated buildings have been evacuated.
When dna asked civic officials about the difference between dangerous and dilapidated buildings and which are more prone to collapse, the answer was both are equally prone, but dilapidated means 'in immediate danger'.
Meaning, a Krishna Niwas-like collapse can occur in Thane 2,566 times again, and 20 buildings are in immediate danger.
Till January 2014, there were 22,000 families and around 1.5 lakh people staying in dangerous buildings in the city. The figures were obtained from a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by activist Chandrahas Tawde in January 2014.
"These buildings call for redevelopment, but due to infighting between tenants, builders and lack of proper FSI rules, the projects are pending," says Tawde.
Residents agree. "We have been staying here since 1981 and have tried to get our buildings repaired and even give it for redevelopment. We even got the high court order for repairs four years back, but the owner and builder refused and we had to stay there, till the TMC evacuated us on June 25," says Sumitra Prabhu, one of the residents of Kamlaji Bhuvan, a building adjacent to Krishna Niwas.
Kamlaji Bhuvan was declared dangerous in a structural audit by the TMC last year and residents were notified about it on June 16, 2015.
Residents staying on pagdi system lament that they are caught between the land owners, builders and the TMC, and are forced to stay in such buildings.
"The owner and builder do not see eye-to-eye. If the owner does not want to go for redevelopment, give us the rights, we will get it done," says Prabhu.
Even if the owner and residents want to go for redevelopment, the FSI of 1:1 for redevelopment of dilapidated buildings discourages builders. Though the Supreme Court has given an FSI of up to 3 for dilapidated buildings, there is lack of political will to implement it," says Ashok Joshi, builder of Rashmi constructions.
Joshi had won a case against the state government and the TMC at the Supreme Court in 2014. "Even with an FSI of 2, redevelopment of a building is easily possible. I had followed up the issue with the TMC, and, on May 6, they published a notification in newspapers. But the decision to implement the FSI is pending both at the TMC and state level, which were parties in my case," says Joshi.
TMC commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal, however, said that he was not aware about the FSI issue.
Thane MP Rajan Vichare, who was in Delhi on Tuesday, said that he has taken up the issue of redevelopment with the Prime Minister. "I spoke to Modi-ji about the need for cluster development in Thane and he assured that he will ask the chief minister to look into the matter," says Vichare.
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