Mumbai: 10 buried as Dongri building of contested legality falls apart

Ten people including a year-old child and six women were buried alive in Dongri as a three-storey building caved in on them on Tuesday morning. Rescue operations were under way at the narrow Tandel Street at the time of going to press. Many are still feared trapped.

The building, built on top of a godown, came up roughly 30 years ago, next to a 90-year-old four-storey structure which still stands.

While the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) said the collapsed structure was "unauthorised", the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said the building was "assessed, and hence legal".

Dongri residents said that Kesarbai building, on 10 Tandel Street, came up over a godown of the 90-year-old structure, Kesarbai 25/C, a cessed building which is now vacant except for two families who have not moved out.

The BMC considers the collpased building as part of 25/C Kesarbai building.

"According to our records, there is assesment of the building and it is legal," said V Rahi, assistant municipal commissioner of B ward, under which Dongri falls.

Building 25/C had been slapped with a evacuation notice in 2017, and the tenants vacated it last year when it started crumbling.

"The collapsed building came up 30 years ago. It was illegal," said Fardeen Nanjiani, who lived in 25/C before being asked to move out.

"They went four feet beyond the godown wall and built the three-storey structure. That is why it is not there on the building maps," said Shakir Devjani, who is helping Nanjiani and others with the redevelopment of 25/C.

"It is because it was an illegal structure that an earlier deal for redevelopment of the two structures could not go through. Occupants refused to give their consent," claimed Devjani.

The collapse has brought to the fore the problem of illegal constructions in Dongri and the slow redevelopment of cessed buildings.

"I was in my building when the structure collapsed around 10.45 am," said Akhlaq Qureshi, who helped remove the debris before the rescue teams arrived and cordoned off the lane.

The building was owned by to Bai Hirbai Rahimbai Aloo Paroo and Bai Kesarbai Dharamsey Khakoo Charitable and Religious Trust, which is part of the Khoja Shia Ishna Ashari Jamat, a Muslim sect. The trust's chairman went on the defensive when asked about the alleged illegality of the property.

"I became a trustee later. The building came up around 1986. That was the time when the underworld was active in Mumbai," said Safdar Karmali, the chairman of the trust. He did not answer further questions.

Rescue (an) Effort 

Operation difficult in the warrens of Dongri 

• 30 yrs Approximate age of the collapsed building  
• 96 Rescuers of National Disaster Relief Force
• 10 Fire brigade officers including chief 
• Other than NDRF and fire brigade officials, 55 BMC labourers were also chipping in with the rescue effort 
• Eight fire engines, one quick response vehicle, two rescue vans, one ambulance, four JCBs, four dumpers pressed into service