Residents of three buildings evacuated in Mumbra after structure tilts

Riddhi Palace

Residents of Riddhi Palace building in Mumbra with 24 tenants had to evacuate the premises in quick time on Sunday evening after the structure began to show large cracks and had also started to tilt. Seventeen families of a neighbouring building, RK Niwas, as well as 19 families from the adjoining Kamal Niwas were also evacuated. According to Thane civic officials, Kamal Niwas is attached to Riddhi Palace and with the tilting of the building, Kamal Niwas residents, too, could have been affected.

The fire brigade and disaster management cell were alerted to the tilting structure late on Sunday, after which they reached the spot and started the evacuation process. All evacuated residents were shifted to the nearby Anand Hall in Koliwada as a temporary measure. Santosh Kadam, chief of Disaster Management cell confirmed the evacuation.

Residents of the buildings that had been evacuated on Sunday

Hasnain Shaikh, a resident of the building said, "The authorities and politicians who visited the building last night claim that an engineer will visit and check the status of the building. They will inform whether the two other buildings are safe."

Today afternoon, structural auditors were scheduled to visit the building to study the cracks in the pillars and the wear, said civic officials. According to a pre-monsoon survey by the Thane civic body, there were 593 dilapidated buildings in Mumbra.