TMC to evacuate, demolish 69 dangerous buildings by May 31

THANE: The Thane municipal administration will soon start the evacuation and demolition of over 69 dilapidated buildings spread across the lake city which have been declared dangerous for occupation.
The administration is in the final stages of collating the number of residents who would be affected due to the drive and is likely to start the evacuation process this week following directives from municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal.
The city has 69 buildings in the C1 category which requires immediate evacuation and demolition, least it could collapse anytime leading to a disaster for neighbouring structures as well. The old city part which comes under the Naupada ward has the highest number of such buildings that were built several decades ago followed by Mumbra that has around 10 such cessed structures.
At a meeting held by Jaiswal on Tuesday, the anti-encroachment squad from the corporation was asked to start and finish the evacuation and demolition of these structures by the month end so that the structures don’t pose a risk for its inmates and the administration during the rains.
“We have started the process of collating information about residents staying in such cessed structures and will soon start the evacuation,” said a senior civic official.
In all, there are around 150 buildings across the ten wards in the city that have become shaky over the years and could collapse in the rains.
A recent study by the TMC revealed Thane has over 3,500 dilapidated structures that need urgent repairs as they have started showing signs of massive wear and tear. As many as 28 cases of plaster collapse and related complaints along with 11 structures developing cracks have been reported to the regional disaster management cell of the TMC in addition to around 34 calls of wall collapses from various spots in the city.
Leader of opposition and NCP corporator Milind Patil said the cluster development needs to be implemented fast in the city as a solution to tackle the massive issue of cessed structures. “Structures over 30 years require a structural audit that validates its stability. However, despite spending lakhs following the directives in the report, societies will be required to repeat the process every five years which is time and money consuming. The cluster redevelopment needs to be implemented fast,” he said.