Aftermath of the Mumbai Building Collapse
Rescue personnel pulled out a girl who was trapped under the debris of a collapsed residential building in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on Friday.
MUMBAI—As buildings in Mumbai fall down with an alarming frequency, much of the blame has been placed on construction companies that used shoddy techniques or owners who neglected to make the necessary repairs. In the latest accident near the Mazgaon dockyard, the owner of the building is the city government itself.
The civic organization that governs Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, was well aware of the safety problems with the five-story Babu Genu Market building, which collapsed on Friday, killing at least 60 people so far and injuring at least 33, making this one of the worst tragedies of its kind in Mumbai’s recent history.
“The municipal corporation had given a notice to repair the building as it was not safe, but they did not do anything about it,” said Murli Khadpekar, who works at the maintenance department at the Mazgaon dockyard and lives next to the building. “The residents of the building have been asking them to repair the building for some time now.”
The building was occupied with people who worked at the municipal corporation, many of whom were trash collectors and laborers.
Shantaram Jadhav, a disaster management official at the city’s municipal corporation, confirmed that the building was sent a safety notice but could not provide details.
The National Disaster Response Force attributed the collapse to the fact that the building was about 33 years old and beginning to decay, a process that was hastened by Mumbai’s salty sea air….
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