Authorities of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation have pulled down a dilapidated building located on the Sivalayam Road near Challapalli Bungalow here.
The VMC Town Planning authorities on Saturday brought a machine to pull down the building in the evening.
Building owner Raju pleaded with the authorities to give him some more time to vacate the house. The officials, however, told him that the building was in a dilapidated condition and might cave in at any moment.
When contacted, City Planner Chakrapani said they had identified nine buildings of such kind in the city that needed to be pulled down on a war-footing.
Inspection
Within a fortnight, these buildings would be demolished. The Town Planning wing conducted a survey of old buildings and found that 165 buildings were unsafe, he said.
The corporation was serving notices on the owners to take necessary steps. The dilapidated structures would be pulled down if the owners did not respond. The authorities would demolish the buildings if the owners failed to take repairs as suggested by the engineering section or if the buildings were unfit structurally, he said.
Following the collapse of the City Light Hotel in the State capital, Director of Town and Country Planning P. Thimma Reddy, in a letter, had asked the Town Planning wing to conduct inspection of each and every building which was in a dilapidated condition.
The DTCP asked the officials to issue notices under Section 4578 of the HMC Act, 1955, Section 231 of APM Act, 1956, to the owner/occupier/tenant, asking them to carry out the repairs or demolish after obtaining the structural stability certificate.
The demolition notice would be issued under Section 456 of the HMC Act and Section 231 of the APM Act if the owner failed to carryout repair/demolition.
