Blast-hit building gets no govt aid, to be rebuilt by residents

NASHIK: The members of Saptashrungi apartments in Tarwala Nagar, Panchavati, have decided to reconstruct the building on their own, following blast that occurred due to explosives that were illegally stocked by a trader residing in the structure. The incident occurred on June 8, 2011. The building's residents are now going ahead with restoration plans and had urged the state for assistance in construction costs but have received no financial aid so far.
"Despite assurances from various quarters, no actual aid has come from the state. help from the government has so far not been received,
While we are being allowed to stay at Maharashtra Engineering Research Institute (MERI) quarters temporarily, we have decided to go ahead and re-construct the building with our own fundspooling from any quarters possible," Santosh Shukla the building's vice-chairman, said.
Saptashrungi houses 15 flats and nine shops. The building will now have an additional floor, which members acquired through 'transfer of development rights' (TDR) in the open market. "We bought the TDR and now have four additional flats to sell which we are hoping will help us to lower costs,hough this not happening willingly, but" Shukla said
Another resident, Deepak Shinde said, that the members were still living on MERI premises office and their demands however remain the same.
"What happened is unfortunate, but that the building had a trader who stocked the explosives illegally.
The result however is that lives of members of 15 families have lost their homes in the process.have shattered to a very large extent,"
The estimated cost of construction worked out by the residents is around Rs 6 lakh per flat. excluding the amount that would be set off due to the TDR and sale of the additional four flats in the open market.
On June 8 last year, an explosion in stored explosives in one of the shops in the building ripped through the building, toppling cars parked around, damaging RCC pillars, wiping out staircase at the ground floor and killing three.