Close to 11 people have believed to dead after a 50 year old building collapsed in Thane on an early Tuesday Morning. The local Municipal body had informed the residents that the old building was unsafe for residence and had asked the residents to leave with the residents refusing to oblige.
The 50 year old building collapsed on the in the wee hours of the early morning. The security guard working in the neighbouring building heard loud noise and reported that the entire building collapsed in less than 5 seconds.
The fire brigade at the scene reported that 7 people have been injured and more are believed to be trapped.
Building collapses have sadly become a regular occurrences in the older part of Mumbai commonly happening during the heavy monsoon season. More than a 100 people have been believed to be dead as a result of building collapses over the last 2 years. The 2013 a five story building collapse in Mazagaon killed 61 people and injured 32 people. The Mumbai municipality also reports that there are close to 14,000 buildings in Mumbai that are older than 70 years. In the last two years there have been close to a hundred building collapse in Mumbai itself.
The soaring property prises in Mumbai along with scarce land resources are often a reason why people are forced to stay in dangerous housing. Residential Property prices in Mumbai increase by 6% year on year making housing very expensive to lower income blue collared citizens. An estimate 60% of the Mumbai residents are believed to stay in slum dwellings and shanty towns. Houses are also often build with low quality construction materials commonly believed to be the primary reason why the buildings aren’t able to withstand the test of time and making it difficult for the residents.