Hyderabad: Was the building that accommodated City Light Hotel originally meant as a house? The GHMC has no record of this, but residents say the building was built for residential purposes nearly  90 years ago.

The case of the City Light Hotel building is only the tip of the ice-berg. The change of building use is rampant in the city. Buildings constructed for  residential purposes are openly being used for commercial purposes because  the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has failed to take  action against the violators.
 
Civil engineering and structural stability experts say that the design and the strength of commercial buildings,  hotels and hospitals in particular, which attract heavy  footfalls  is different from the ones designed and built for residential purposes.
 
Civil engineering and structural stability expert Prof N. V. Ramana Rao of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (Hyderabad) said that building usage category should not be allowed  to change particularly from residential to commercial because the strength of the columns and beams in residential  buildings  is not as fortified as that of  a commercial building. 
 
“We have lodged several complaints with GHMC but to no avail. Flat owners who have rented their flats to be used as  godowns and hotels in residential colonies pay commercial rate of property tax as GHMC has legitimised their change of building category. How can GHMC allow commercial activity in purely a residential layout?” said Hemant Rao of Sindhi Colony.
 
GHMC officials admitted to the rampant activity of building category being changed without permission. “It is a long-drawn procedure to change building category from residential to commercial,” a senior official in GHMC said.
 
“The government has to issue a G.O. The GHMC is only collecting commercial rate of property tax but  does not give legitimacy to the change of category of building,” the official said.
 
Hotel shifted from Monda to RP road
 

C.R. Gowri Shanker | DC
 
City Light Hotel and Bakery earned fame not just for its biryani and other Irani snacks, but also tasty haleem during Ramzan. Every year, during the holy month, the management of the eatery would go all out to attract haleem lovers from across the city. The preparations proved fatal this year for the building, many of its employees and customers.
 
This is because the management reportedly put several brick-made haleem bhattis on the first floor of the two-storied load bearing building. As the building was not constructed on pillars, it could not take the load.
 
City Light, owned by Jalal Boluki, is currently run by Syed Hassan Boluki. Mr Boluki is reportedly in a state of shock and has suffered a heart attack as his son Mustafa died in the building collapse. 
 
Hussain, who is close to the hotel management, told Deccan Chronicle that they have no clues regarding the reason for the collapse. According to Mr Hussain, the hotel was set up in 1977-78 on RP Road and since then has been doing very well despite a change of management among the relatives.
 
The father of the current owner reportedly bought the building from the Dundoo family when it was already a few decades old. Initially, City Light was operated from a rented premise near the old Gandhi Hospital in Monda Market. Later it was shifted to the RP Road venue. 
 
The business grew over the years and members of the family set up a chain of hotels in city, including Bahar hotel. According to Mohd Saleem, former chairman of the Wakf Board and a close friend of the family, six brothers of the family had started the business from scratch in the 1970s and they were highly successful.