BMC orders checks on 50 old buildings

MUMBAI: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials on Wednesday ordered checks on nearly 50 dangerously cracked and sinking buildings in the metropolis to prevent them from collapsing in next month's monsoon.

The commercial and residential buildings are home to 2,300 tenants. Some may be cleared and knocked down to prevent a repeat of collapses that followed last year's devastating floods in the city.

The 48 buildings, mostly 60 to 70 years old, held up by props and riddled with cracks and subsidence, will be examined.

"The buildings structures may require repair or have to be pulled down," said director of engineering KR Chaudhary.

"They are supposed to be dangerous but I think after the reports there will be four or five which have to be vacated before the monsoon."

City officials said tenants paying well-below market rents were unwilling to move out of buildings as they could not be rehoused for free in the densely populated city where more than one-third live in slums.