A three-storey building, reportedly a century old, collapsed and goods worth around ₹50 lakh were destroyed in Mamulpet due to heavy rains in the early hours of Saturday, August 6. Fortunately, none were hurt in the incident. The building was served a notice a year ago in August 2021, for being unfit for occupation. However, three shops continued to run in the building.
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The two upper portions of the building meant for residential purpose have been vacant for the past many years while the ground floor was rented out to three shops, where around 20 people were working. Luckily, there were no casualties as the incident occurred in the wee hours when no one was around.
The incident occurred at around 3 a.m. Residents of the neighbouring buildings heard a heavy creaking sound and rushed out to notice the building crumbling down. The patrolling police, along with the fire and emergency service personnel, rushed to the spot to cordon the area and later removed the debris with the help of JCBs. There was little damage to the adjacent building as the old building crashed straight down and did not fall on any surrounding structures, a police officer said.
One of the owners of the three shops on the ground floor of the building said the roof of the shops were leaking even during brief spells of rains and despite taking up the issue with the owners several times, they had not responded and fixed it.
Hemalatha, AEE, BBMP, said they had served notice to the building owners in August 2021, as being unfit for occupation. “The owners of the building had declared it to be 100 years old,” she said. The owners of the building had challenged the notice in a civil court which prevented the civic body from taking any precipitative action, she said.