Two killed in wada collapse in Pune

A 75-year-old woman and her 17-year-old granddaughter were killed when a 100-ft-long portion of a wall of 80-year-old Shindewada, located at 691, Kasba Peth, caved in early on Wednesday. Twelve other residents of the wada had a narrow escape as they were rescued in time.

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials claimed that they had served notices to the occupants of the wada after identifying the wada as hazardous structure. Even the efforts to demolish the old structure was opposed by them.

The deceased have been identified as Vaishnavi Avinash Patange (17) and her grandmother Sudha Ramesh Patange (75). The duo was sleeping on the ground floor of the neighbouring Pataskarwada when a wall of Shindewada caved in on their room, burying them under the debris.

Kasba Peth fire station officer incharge Sunil Gilbile said, “The Patanges got little chance to save themselves as they were fast asleep. Twelve other occupants also found themselves stuck as the staircases of the old wada fell during the crash.”

Gilbile said, “Heavy rains during the past few days further damaged the already weakened structure.”

“On a tip-off, fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot with safety ladders and rescued the stranded occupants within thirty minutes,” he said. Assistant commissioner of police (city division) PR Khaire said that autopsy of the victims was performed at Sassoon Hospital later in the evening.

Collapsed wada was on  highly dangerous list: PMC

The wada in Kasba Peth, which collapsed in the wee hours of Wednesday, was listed among the highly dangerous structures in Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) list of dilapidated wadas.

The PMC officials said that the notice was already served to the wada residents and some part of it was already demolished.

Vivek Kharwadkar, PMC’s additional city engineer, said, “The collapsed wada was already listed among the highly dangerous structures in the PMC limit. We had given evacuation notices to the wada residents and they were evacuated. Some part of the wada’s upper floor was already demolished but some residents had come back to stay in the wada when it collapsed.”

The PMC earlier had surveyed the various structures in the city in 2008 and it has listed 1,186 structures as risky. Out of these, some 100 structures were listed as highly dangerous.

Kharwadkar said, “The PMC had managed to demolished 95 wadas from the highly dangerous structures list but from 2008 to 2013, the number of highly dangerous structures increased and now there are 45 more wadas to be demolished. We have started the procedure of demolishing the remaining wadas.”