Mumbai: One dead in slab crash at century-old Grant Road building

The century-old building had been repaired by MHADA about eight months ago. Pic/Shadab Khan

One person died when two floors of a century-old building at Grant Road came crashing down. The incident happened in the A wing of United Chambers at Grant Road. The mishap may have happened in the night and was noticed in the morning as the aging building was unoccupied but for a man who worked as a caretaker. The portion of the first-floor ceiling measuring approximately 8x8 square feet fell on the first floor which then fell on the ground floor. Mumbai Fire Brigade removed the debris and rushed him to J J Hospital. The victim was declared dead on arrival. The victim has been identified as Sagar Nikam, 36.

The building is situated near the Shalimar Hotel on Maulana Shaukat Ali Road. The building has three wings - A, B and C and the incident occurred in the A wing. A neighbour on the condition of anonymity said that very few families reside in that part of the building and rooms were mostly used for commercial purposes. A man used to come to sleep on the premises. No one knew exactly when the slabs crashed, but in the morning, one of the neighbouring families raised the alarm.

After the Mumbai Fire Brigade arrived on the spot, they removed the debris and found Nikam. "He used to work as a caretaker for the rooms that were used for commercial purposes. Three other workers used to come in the morning. The workers arrived today but returned owing to the mishap," said one of the residents of the adjacent building.

One of the residents claimed that the incident had occurred after MHADA had repaired the building some months ago. The chief public relations officer of MHADA said, "The building was over 100 years old and as per requirement MHADA had repaired it six to eight months ago. The flooring or slabs were of wood and the residents had made false ceilings. So maybe the issue wasn't recognised during the audit." The MHADA official said that they will make a proposal for redevelopment of all three wings of the building.