July 3: The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has set up a one-man enquiry committee to look into the causes of the Ganesh Bhuvan house collapse at Kalbadevi that occurred on June 30. The enquiry committee headed by one of their own chief engineers, is expected to submit its report within a month.

``We will be taking a very serious view of this collapse,'' asserted chairman of the Repair Board, Madhu Chavan, ``and if anybody is found guilty, we shall be processing criminal charges against him''.

The five storeyed building, which housed a number of commercial offices alongwith a few residential premises, had collapsed for the second time in the past 26 years. After the first collapse in 1971 it was reconstructed in seven years though the building was handed over to the residents only in 1984. MHADA itself had repaired the building with reinforced cement concrete. Four persons were killed in this week's collapse and only three bodies have been recovered yet.

``It is difficult for the officials to remove the bodies, because the one narrow passage of six feet has been further narrowed, by props of another building in the vicinity. All officers have had to wade through the gutter which is the only approach route to the building,'' said minister of state for housing, Raj Purohit.

``There could be a number of technical reasons for the collapse of the building, including that of use of poor raw materials,'' said Chavan adding, ``They might also have used a wrong kind of foundation, instead of pile foundation, they might have used open foundation''. Along with the enquiry, MHADA has also ordered for a survey of all buildings that it had reconstructed in the 1980s. Chavan estimates that there might be around 30 to 50 such buildings.

However, according to Purohit, a survey of all buildings constructed or reconstructed by MHADA in the 1970s which was marked by the cement scandal of Antulay's regime has been ordered.

``This collapse has been extraordinary. It was a newly constructed building and whatever be the reason for the collapse it has to be investigated. Already samples of the cement and iron pillars have been sent for analyses,'' he said.

A compensation of Rs 10,000 has been announced for the dead with Rs 5000 for those injured. The residents have been allotted transit accommodations in MHADA's transit camps in Borivli and Gorai, said Chavan.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.