Vadodara civic body to pull down 167 dilapidated buildings

The Vadodara Municipal Corporation today served notices to the owners of 167 dilapidated buildings that may pose a threat to public safety.
The move comes in the wake of a building collapse incident on Piramitar Road in Dandiya Bazaar area here last week, which claimed three members of a family.
"We have started serving notice to the owners of dilapidated building even though the occupants are unwilling to vacate the premises," The city Municipal Commissioner of VMSS Manish Bharadwaj told PTI.
"We will evict the owners and tenants and pull down the structures soon. The civic body will remove such structure in the public interest," he added.

Of the 167 dilapidated buildings, 40 are in very dangerous conditions, Bhardwaj said.
Thirty such buildings have already been demolished by the civic body, which is in the process of razing another 18 buildings, he said.
VMC city engineer, P M Patel said, "The civic body had first issued notices a couple of years ago to pull down the dangerous, though their occupants were not willing to do so.