Following the collapse of two buildings within just two days of each other this week, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said on Wednesday, September 29, that zonal committees to identify dilapidated buildings to be demolished, before they collapse, will be set up. The committees will be composed of zonal joint commissioners and chief engineers led by the special commissioner of the project department.
The committee will be tasked with an emergency re-conduction of a survey and will have to submit a report within 15 days on the number of dilapidated buildings in Bengaluru. Earlier, in 2019, a similar survey had been conducted where 185 buildings had been identified, however, according to Gaurav Gupta, the BBMP wasn't able to demolish more than 10 buildings. Further, he revealed that the buildings that collapsed recently were not on the 2019 survey list.
“To remove old buildings, a survey was done two years ago (in 2019), and out of the 185 identified buildings, 10 have been removed. There was a notice that was sent to all the building owners in 2019, but, for several reasons the process of removal was not completed. When I enquired, the two buildings that recently collapsed were not in the 2019 survey list. So we felt that maybe there is a need for a more elaborate survey. I have instructed the officials that an emergency survey has to be conducted within 15 days,” Gaurav Gupta said.
Speaking to reporters, the BBMP chief also said that the previous survey had not included government owned buildings. He said, “In the earlier survey, they hadn't gone into government buildings and conducted the survey. If this time, we visibly find that the building might collapse, that will also be included.”
As per the 2019 survey, there were 33 dilapidated buildings identified in the south zone, 46 in the east zone, 34 in the west, three in Mahadevapura, 60 in Yelahanka, eight in Dasarahalli and one in RR Nagar. According to the BBMP, eight buildings in the south zone and one each in Dasarahalli and Mahadevapura zone were removed.
On Monday, September 27, a three-storey building in Bengaluru’s Lakkasandra, housing construction workers working on the Bengaluru metro, collapsed. However, the residents were evacuated the previous day, after they made distress calls about the building shaking. The next day, on Tuesday, another three-storey building in the Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited (KMF), which housed more than 15 families collapsed as well. None were injured in this incident either