The wreckage of the Banoo Apartments building in Mumbra. One person was killed and three others trapped when it collapsed on Sa

Mumbra saw another of its buildings collapse when the five-storeyed Banoo Apartments building came crashing down at 8 am on Saturday. One person was killed, one rescued and two remained trapped under the debris.

At the time of the collapse, 125 residents had evacuated the building but four people were still inside. These included three men and one woman out of which Hanif Sheikh (32) lost his life while Shakina Sheikh (30) is being treated. Searches were on to rescue Moin Kureshi (35) and Jawed Sheikh (26). These two were trapped when they went inside to lock the door of their flats.
Six teams of the fire brigade and an officer from the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) were at work at the location, but they faced difficulties as the building was in a very narrow lane.
“There used to be a nullah and hutments here, but when the builder offered 2BHK flats, everyone gave their consent for redevelopment and now we are paying the price,” said a survivor who did not wish to be named.
Another survivor, Moin Qureshi, said, “In the early hours of Saturday, residents heard crumbling sounds so everyone had vacated the building, except four people who were still searching and securing their valuables. They got trapped inside the building when it fell.”
“Just after we vacated it, the entire building came crashing down before our eyes and we had no option but to accept what was happening,” he added.
The Mumbra police has arrested builder Shakeel Shaikh, while his father Aqeel, also a builder, is absconding.
Located near Mumbra (east) station, the Banoo Apartments building consisted of 28 residential and eight commercial premises. It was built in 2004 and residents have been paying property tax since 2006. However, like other buildings, this one didn’t have an occupancy certificate either.
Thane municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta, who monitored the rescue operation at the site, admitted that since these buildings are illegal and made without a proper plan, it was not possible to track the structural consolidation of the building.
Immediately after the collapse of the Lucky compound in April 2013, the state government had formed a team of engineers to shortlist the
dilapidated and
most-dilapidated buildings, but Banoo building was not listed. Mr Gupta said, “Practically speaking, we don’t have a mechanism to detect the depth of a building’s foundation and its solidity.”
He also said that the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) had enough premises for the survivors at Vertak Nagar, Thane at a rental housing
project handed over by the MMRDA to the TMC. However, survivors will have to pay `2,000 per month as rent. “Since these survivors have lost everything, we have cut down the rent rate by three-fourth,” Mr Gupta added. Mayor Harishchandra Patil, who also supervised the rescue operations, appealed to the residents to cooperate with the administration.
Minister of state for urban development Uday Samant, guardian minister of Thane Ganesh Naik, additional commissioner of the TMC Shyam Sundar Patil, MP Anand Paranjape, MLA Jitendra Ahwad and Eknath
Shinde were among those who visited the site.