National

Then There Stood None

The sad tale of Mumbai’s crumbly buildings and the stasis that prevents cure

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Then There Stood None
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As They Fell Monthly

  • July 5 Six killed in Bhiwand, near Mumbai, when a small unit of a garment factory collapsed 
  • June 22 Seven killed, six injured in Dahisar when a building called Piyush collapsed. It was declared ‘extremely dangerous’ and vacated. However, vendors used the building.
  • June 21 10 killed, 14 injured in Mumbra when a building, Shakuntala, collapsed. It was more than 30 years old.
  • June 10 10 killed, six injured in Mahim when a portion of Aftab Manzil came down
  • June 8 Two killed as the wall of a shopping mall in Bhandup collapsed

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The most fateful, tragic day in Rizwan Merchant’s life came last month. His 12-year-old son, his wife and his mother were killed when Aftab Manzil, the building they lived in at Mahim, Mumbai, collapsed in the heavy seasonal rains. In all, 10 people died. The building was neither very old nor decl­ared dangerous. “This is the most difficult test of my life. I have lost everything, but I will not let their deaths go in vain. I will fight and bring the culprits to book. I have nothing to lose,” says an inconsolable Merchant who, driven by a desire to start criminal proceedings against the owners as soon as possible, resumed work within days. Less than two weeks later, in Dahisar, a western suburb of the city, a vacant building—both old and dangerous—collapsed, killing seven people. Four such incidents in the past one month have claimed 30 lives in Mumbai and nearby Thane.

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The resultant furore has left the state government, the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation scurrying for cover. Estimates put the number of ‘cessed’ buildings—those built before 1940—at over 14,000. The BMC has identified more than 900 buildings as ‘dangerous’, of which around 250 are ‘extremely dangerous’. They house around two to three lakh people. Worst of all, the marked buildings are all old and dilapidated; there is no estimate on how many new buildings, like Aftab Manzil, may have undergone illegal structural changes and are at a risk of caving in. “Tenants pay paltry rent, which isn’t enough for badly needed repairs. They can’t even be repaired piecemeal. Tenants may not feel obligated to repair, they have a legal right to stay put, so the stalemate continues,” said Sitaram Kunte, municipal commissioner, who suspended three officials for the Aftab Manzil collapse.

But most owners of ‘cessed’ buildings don’t care about repairs—they are waiting for tenants to vacate, so that they can demolish and profitably reb­uild. “However, plots are often too narrow for any substantial gain through redevelopment,” says Amin Patel, MLA from the Mumbadevi-Mazgaon area, which has a 50 per cent share of ‘cessed’ buildings. “Cluster redevelopment runs into bigger problems because there are many more people involved and required for consent,” says chairman of Mumbai Building and Reconstruction Board, Prasad Lad. He too identifies the tripartite trust deficit among tenants, owners and developers as the root of the sordid impasse. Sceptical about getting their homes back, tenants refuse to move to transit camps during repairs. “This catastrophic problem will worsen every year. Unless someone lets go there will be no repairs and buildings will eventually collapse,” says RTI activist Kri­shnaraj Rao. Many residents in south and central Mumbai complain that authorities do not relocate them in the same area, and fear they may be allotted a smaller space than before. In add­ition, no redevelopment project is time-bound. In some cases, families end up living in transit camps for years. Lad insists the number of people spe­nding years in transit camps has redu­ced, a claim refuted by activists. Caught between inertia and mistrust, residents prefer to risk their lives in buildings with the consistency of matchboxes.

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The whole issue has led politicians to give concessions on development control rules (DCR) and provide extra floor space index (FSI) to builders developing crumbling structures. This has prompted activists to ring an alarm, as the city just doesn’t have the infrastructure—open spaces, water, parking and roads—for even more highrises. Developers do covet the profitable concession on DCR, but carp at the ted­ious and lengthy negotiations bet­ween tenants and owners as the building leaks and chips away. Meanwhile, residents tear off MHADA warning notices from walls and insist their buildings—with pipal trees peeking from gaping cracks, leaking and marshy roofs, dangerous wiring—are repairable. So, nothing happens. When authorities lose patience or when things have gone too far (and termed ‘extremely dangerous’), they ask the police to evict residents, and cut off electricity and water supply. “It is bey­ond logic that people opt to stay on in such buildings rather than move to transit accommodations,” says Kunte.

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But it’s not for everyone to choose. Ninety-two-year-old Mridula Dutta, the veteran actress who starred in Dilip Kumar’s debut film Jwar Bhata (1944), has a flat on the 7th floor of Kinara, a sea-facing building in Worli. Now, she has been asked to go to Goregaon, a far western suburb. The BMC had given her this flat when her house was taken over for a Veer Savarkar memorial in Shivaji Park. “I can barely walk. I live by myself with only a relative or a friend for company. This was convenient, beca­use my daughter lives nearby. The civic body did not repair this building even once in 30 years. Naturally, it is damaged. Now they want to demolish it.”

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When authorities cut off water and electricity, Dutta paid Rs 9,000 to get them restarted. The lift was shut, so she could not step out. “As soon as electricity was restored, I just got her to my place,” says Dutta’s daughter Roma Dutta-Ahuja, herself a senior citizen. “Goregaon is so far that relocating and redoing the house will take a lot of time and money.... But we accepted their req­uest as I can’t afford to fight in court,” she adds. Other Kinara residents claim it is repairable, but the BMC wants to hand it over to a developer. “In the West, there are no compromises on structural audits and timely repairs. The BMC is obligated to check and secure all buildings. And people too have to be aware of the alterations they make,” says Pankaj Joshi, executive director, Urban Design Research Institute.

Some anti-demolitionists take cover behind another obstacle. Watson’s Hotel or Esplanade Mansion houses scores of lawyers’ offices, and is a heritage structure listed as an ‘endangered monument’ by the World Monuments Fund. It is perhaps the oldest surviving complete cast-iron framed structure in India and the world’s first habitable, multi-storeyed, iron-framed building. Now, even as battered balconies rattle in the wind, ill­egal alterations dot the structure, and the owner remains as elusive as the yeti. Many Mumbai buildings like this are holding together with just bamboo scaffolding and prayers. And ever so often there is a Rizwan Merchant helplessly watching his loved ones being pulled out of the rubble of a collapsed life.

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