10 Panchratna occupants get demolition notices

MUMBAI: The BMC has served demolition notices to a number of occupants of Panchratna building, the country''s premier diamond trading hub, for illegally constructing commercial units.
Several diamond merchants have also been issued notices under section 394 of the BMC Act for storing harmful chemicals in the building.
Deputy municipal commissioner S S Shinde told TNN that a report on the violations of the 25-storeyed building situated in Opera House was submitted to municipal commissioner Karun Srivastava recently
Shinde said many units had stored more than permissible amount of sulphuric acid, used in cleaning the diamonds.The Panchratna building has 300 rooms where concentrated sulphuric acid is boiled throughout the day, and sometimes even at night. The business is estimated to be worth hundreds of crores.
Shinde said that the entire process of taking action against the illegalities in the building would take considerable time.
More than a month ago, immediately after a blast in a Surat building housing diamond processing units, Congress corporator Puran Doshi had raised the matter in the civic standing committee meeting. Doshi had pointed out that storage of heavy safe deposite vaults and structural changes is threateningly burdening the building.
Chairperson Datta Dalvi had agreed to pay a visit to the building to check the irregularities and fire hazards in the building that were pointed out by the fire department. The fire department in its survey report had concluded that the lives of the occupants were in danger.
However, on Saturday, Doshi criticised the members for not implementing their decision to inspect the building. Dalvi did not offer any explanation to his remarks.
The fire brigade''s report also noted that unauthorised LPG cylinders were being used in these units for the purpose of manufacturing ornaments. In fact, the explosion of LPG cylinders used to boil acid caused the Surat blast, after which the building collapsed.
The building has been in the headlines after intelligence reports suggested that terrorists had marked Panchratna as their target to attack. More recently, last week, an NRI diamond merchant was beaten to death allegedly by other merchants having shops in Panchratna building.