Thane residents fear repeat of 'dangerous' tag for safe buildings

While the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has agreed to revoke the 'dangerous' tag issued by mistake to over 300 buildings in Srinagar, Thane (W), some residents concerned are not sure if this 'mistake' will not be repeated again next year. They allege that this was done at the behest of a corporator and builder for them to vacate their 63-acre plot since their buildings were termed as dangerous.

The issuance of the 'dangerous building' tag by the TMC to over 300 bungalows and buildings in Srinagar has opened up a Pandora's box. Though the civic body has revoked this tag and the residents can stay on in their houses, they are worried that this move will be repeated.

"We think that a veteran Congress corporator, whose father is a developer, has got something to do with our buildings being wrongly classified as dangerous," said advocate V S Lakshmanan, who stays in Suraj Bungalow in Srinagar. "This corporator has been attempting redevelopments in our area in conjunction with various builder groups for the past few years," he said.

According to the residents, if their buildings are classified as dangerous, it would become easy for the builder to vacate them. "No redevelopment can be carried out without the buildings being demolished," the advocate added.

"And this would bring down our property rates drastically," he said.

The 'dangerous' tag would open up this 63-acre township — with a market rate of Rs14,000 to Rs15,000 per square feet — for quick redevelopment. The residents will then lose bargaining power. "No wonder our structure, which is not even 30 years old, was classified as dangerous," Lakshmanan said.

The residents also thanked dna for taking up this issue, which helped them reach a quick resolution. "Thanks to dna, the matter was sorted out within a day after the story was published," Lakshmanan said.

TMC officials, however, were not available for comments.