Footpath caves in as underground parking lot crashes in Mulund

An 80m stretch of a footpath and an adjoining drain in a plush Mulund locality caved in after the foundation work of an under-construction commercial high-rise crashed on Sunday afternoon.

There were no casualties in the incident.

The incident occurred at the junction of the busy JN Road and the Walji Ladha Road.

At the time of going to press, the damaged portion of the road was barricaded and cordoned off. A 27-storey commercial high-rise is coming up in the region. "The piling work on the 3,110 sq m plot collapsed during heavy rains," a senior civic official said. The developers had excavated nearly 40-feet deep to construct a three-level basement public car park, which will enable them to avail incentive FSI.

The BMC, which has already approved plans for the high-rise, recently granted permission to the developers, Duratech, for constructing the car park with a capacity to accommodate 138 vehicles.

BMC officials rushed to the site to take stock. A senior building proposal department official blamed heavy rains for the incident. He claimed that the developers had even sought permission for sheet piling for the basement work to ensure safety of the pile foundations.

Pratap Lodhaya, partner, Duratech, too blamed unprecedented rains in Mulund on Sunday afternoon for the collapse. "The region had intense water logging due to heavy rains in the afternoon. Public drains running alongside the premises first gave way taking a big tree with it. The pressure exerted by their collapse could have led to the crashing of the pile foundations," argued Lodhaya.

Corportor Manoj Kotak, however, said, “The foundation work is expected to be strong enough to sustain impacts without giving way," Kotak said. The BJP leader, who is an improvements committee chairman in the BMC, demanded an inquiry into the quality into the incident.

Following the crash, the developers were directed to get the footpath and the collapsed drain portions repaired at their own cost.

Lodhaya said restoration work was likely to begin on Monday morning.