Mhada to start eviction in 14 days

With three buildings collapsing within a span of 10 days, Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority (Mhada) has taken up a 14 days action plan of shifting the residents unsafe buildings to the transit camps located in the city.

However, in this action plan only eviction of the families will be taken care of. There will be no construction during the period. In a post flood survey, 503 buildings are marked as dangerous and out of them, on the priority basis, 80 buildings are marked very dangerous.

"We have planned to move the 1,296 families living in these 80 buildings to the transit camps in order to avert any increase in the death toll because of the collapsing," said Vaishali Wagh, PRO, Mhada.

"There is no point of repairing these 80 chawls as such an act will only extend the life of the buildings by another 5-10 years," said D N Hardare chief engineer, Mhada. "Repairs for these buildings would cost Rs 30 crores, but we will be demolishing them and construct new buildings which will roughly cost us around Rs 80 crore," Hardare said.

"The rest of the buildings will be repaired which will approximately cost Rs 45 crore," he added. However, the officials of the Mhada are not yet ready with any official estimation of the whole cost of relocating, repairing and new construction.