A multi-storeyed police residential quarters near Binny Mills, which is less than three years old, developed a wide crack and started tilting on Saturday after a night of heavy rains. The crack, which looked more like a gap, ran all the way from the top floor right down to the basement. Thirty two families from the B-block of the Binny Mill quarters were evacuated and allotted newly constructed quarters at Nagarabhavi, said Sanjeev Patil, DCP, West Division.
The incident has come as a huge embarrassment to the Police Housing Corporation as the complex was inaugurated in 2018. A senior police officer, who visited the spot, said work on the residential quarters began in 2016. It was completed in two years.
BBMP officials said they had only issued a no objection certificate to the Police Housing Corporation and had no role in the plan sanction or regulation. “Families started moving into the new quarters by December 2019. Two rounds of inspections had been conducted since then,” said the senior police officer.
‘Shoddy construction’
A.S.N. Murthy, managing director, Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation, said they have initiated a probe. While he refused to comment on the cause stating that an investigation was under way, occupants said the work undertaken by the contractor was substandard work. “This was made worse as the building had been constructed in the lake bed area,” said one occupant.
Another resident, who was evacuated from the flat, said the crack began to develop on their block after construction of an adjacent block began.
A wife of a police officer, who had moved to a flat on the seventh floor a little over a year ago, said, “Immediately after I moved in, I spotted a 1.5 inch crack along the beam next to the lift area. We brought it to the notice of the engineers who told us not to worry. The crack developed till the basement, and appears to be as wide as 7 inches,” she said.
