Death toll up to 3 in building collapse

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A day after the collapse, rescue and clean-up operations were still on — deepak kurkunde

The death toll in the Mumbra building collapse has risen to three, with two more dead bodies being removed from the rubble during rescue operations on Saturday midnight. A team of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and fire brigade found the dead bodies of Javed Sheikh (26) and Moin Kureshi (35) in the debris. Earlier, Hanif Sheikh (32) had been confirmed dead after the five-storied Banoo Apartment building had collapsed at 8 am on Saturday. At the time of the collapse, 125 residents had evacuated the building but four people were still inside as they had gone into the building to lock the doors of their flats.
Meanwhile, clean-up operations continued for the second day on Sunday. The team conducting the rescue operations faced difficulties as the building was in a congested lane leaving a very narrow space to carry out the rescue work. A jawan involved in the rescue and clean-up hoped to continue the work for 24 more hours. He confirmed that there was no one left inside the debris and the work could now speed up.
“Yes, our team faced a number of hurdles as it is carrying out its work in a limited space,” an official of disaster management cell of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) confirmed. He also said that his team had to suspend work for three hours on Sunday morning for the last rites of the deceased to be carried out smoothly.
TMC’s public relation officer Sandeep Malvi said, “TMC has been giving an ex-gratia of `5,000 to all 28 affected families. We have disbursed this amount to 24 families so that they can start their resettlement without further delay.” He also said that the TMC had started the procedure for alternate accommodation for the victims at Vertak Nagar at Thane. However, they will have to pay a rent of `2,000 per month.