BENGALURU: A five-storey building collapsed in Doctors Layout, Kasturi Nagar, east Bengaluru, on Thursday. However, no casualties were reported as the occupants evacuated in the nick of time.
Around 12:30pm, residents of Sunshine Apartment felt a sudden impact as one of the pillars in the structure began leaning to the right.
Residents evacuated the building within half an hour, and the ground floor gave away around 1pm; the structure threatened to crumble on the adjacent building.
The eight-year-old building stood on a 60ftX40ft plot and had eight residential units, only three of which were occupied.
Joint commissioner (east) K Pallavi blamed the building contractor for flawed construction resulting in the collapse. She said there could be no other contributory factor as neither the soil in the area was loose, nor were there any stormwater drains nearby. “The building stood on an A khata site in a BDA Layout. The owner had taken permission to construct a ground floor on stilts and two upper floors, but there were violations,” Pallavi told TOI.
According to BBMP’s complaint to local police, the apartment was a joint venture of AN Builders, Ayesha Baig, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Iyasuddin. The collapsed structures comprised of a basement, ground floor and three upper floors.
“We lodged an FIR against everyone, including the site owner...,” added Pallavi.
Guard alerted tenants
Ankush, a tenant in the building, said: “The security guard rushed to my house and told me that one of the pillars of the building was sinking and that the tiles of the ground floor were cracking.”
Ankush rushed out and alerted the others. In 30 minutes, everyone took whatever essentials they could grab and rushed out of the building.
BBMP said it received information about the building collapse only between 2.30pm and 3.30pm.
Ramamurthynagar police and fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot.
The buildings on either side were also evacuated to prevent further collapse. “ BBMP officials prepared the complaint based on findings of violations from the building owners...,” said SD Sharanappa, DCP (east).
Gaurav Gupta, chief commissioner, BBMP visited the spot later in evening and directed his officials to start demolition and complete the exercise by Friday.
“As the building is leaning to a side, there are chances of neighbouring buildings suffering damages. We will do a thorough check before allowing occupants to get back,” Gupta said.
The three families that lived in the collapsed building were trying to reach out to their relatives and friends to arrange for shelter. All of them lived as tenants.
