Bhiwandi: Ten persons were killed and three injured after half a wing of a five-storey building tagged “very dangerous” collapsed amid illegal emergency repairs to a tilting pillar and rain late on Thursday in Bhiwandi. Locals suspected one more person was trapped under the rubble. The rescue operation was still underway.Some of the residents had gone into the building—Kohinoor Apartments in Bhandari Compound—just minutes before tragedy struck. Many of the victims were residents, others labourers working at the site and at least one was a visitor. Around 12 of the 48 flats in all were affected and 200-odd residents displaced.Residents had pooled in money and hired a contractor for the repairs without conducting a structural audit. Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation had not been apprised of the work. It said some of its officials had stopped the work and evacuated 11 labourers and around 40 occupants in the night, but many of them went back.The civic body said it had issued three notices since 2020 and declared the building unfit in June, directing occupants to vacate it, and disconnected water and electricity supplies. Residents claimed they had not got any notice and they had water and power until the crash.The state govt ordered an inquiry. An FIR was lodged against the contractor hired for repairs, Ashok, and building owner, Bilal Khan, under Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 125 (negligent act endangering human life or personal safety of others) of BNS and relevant provisions of Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act for illegal construction, said DCP (zone 2), Thane, Pawan Basod.The PM announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of those killed and the CM Rs 5 lakh each.This was the third such major building collapse in Bhiwandi since 2020.Repairs to the 15-year-old building began four days earlier after residents flagged falling plaster chunks and hired a contractor on their own. The structure was not vacated during the work.Around 8pm on Thursday, residents noticed that a supporting pillar in wing B had developed a crack and was tilting, alerted the contractor and vacated the building. Workers were immediately brought in and the pillar was reinforced with iron support rods. Assuming that the structure had been stabilised, many residents went back into the building around 11.30pm. Moments later, half the wing collapsed, trapping many residents and labourers under the rubble.Over 15 hours, NDRF, fire brigade and Thane disaster response force personnel pulled out the bodies of Rakesh Paswan (25), Mukesh Paswan (30), Ashok Paswan (40), Krish Kumar (32), Ranjit Singh (45), Radheshyam Kushwaha (45), Siraj Rasul Sheikh (45), Shamim Ansari (32), Shyam Pal (40), and Santosh Pandey (42). Those injured—Abhay Yadav (26), Deepak Yadav (25) and Sangeeta Prajapati (36)—were taken to a hospital. Some residents were rescued from the portion of the wing that remained standing.An NDRF officer said the building suffered a “pancake collapse”, in which one floor falls directly onto another. “The chances of survival in such collapses are extremely low. We deployed trained sniffer dogs to locate the victims. Since many were trapped on the ground floor, our teams created an escape route by carefully digging trenches before recovering the bodies.”Disaster management minister Girish Mahajan, who visited the site, said the repairs were carried out late at night to escape scrutiny by civic officials. “Strict action will be taken against those found responsible.” He directed the authorities to ensure that all dangerous buildings in Bhiwandi are vacated and appropriate action taken against them.Mehtab Ansari, a resident, told TOI that all flat owners had contributed around Rs 10,000 each for the repairs. Another resident, Komal Arvind Gupta, alleged that the contractor’s negligence during the work damaged the pillar.Row of slum huts blocks access rdThe rescue operation was hampered by about 20 slum huts blocking the narrow road leading to the site. Seven of these were demolished to allow earthmovers to move in, while four others were damaged by falling debris from the ill-fated building. Most others were damaged by the rubble being cleared. Around 100 people living in these tenements now stand displaced. The civic body offered them temporary shelter, but they sought compensation for their losses.
