MHADA pulls up its socks to avoid another Mumbra

To prevent another Mumbra-like building collapse, the city's biggest housing board Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has now decided to carry out a structural audit of all buildings under its jurisdiction. As of now, MHADA has conveyance of 56 societies, consisting of 3,071 buildings.

The Mumbra building collapse site. File pic

In the Head of Department's meeting held yesterday at its Bandra headquarters, it was decided that the structural audit of societies and buildings will be carried out soon. MHADA will vacate and redevelop those buildings that will be found dangerous.

"After the Thane mishap, we decided to have a structural audit of all buildings that belong to MHADA and are unconveyed. We will conduct the audit as per BMC rules," said NK Sudhanshu, chief officer of MHADA's Mumbai board. "After the survey, buildings that are not found suitable for human habitation will be redeveloped under existing rules. We have principally agreed on this issue and soon a proposal would be formed for the same."

According to a senior MHADA official, the Mumbra building collapse that killed 74 people, was the talking point of the meeting. "We have many buildings, apart from nearly 16,000 dilapidated ones, that are still under MHADA. Hence, we decided to take precautionary measures and the decision of a structural audit was taken by the Mumbai board," he said.

Mumbai already has nearly 16,000 cessed buildings that are located in the south of the city. Every year, at least some part of these buildings collapse. As a rule, MHADA carries out a structural audit for these buildings before the monsoons. However, this would be the first time that the authority would be carrying out an audit of all buildings that have been constructed by MHADA in the last few decades.

Buildings under BMC jurisdiction
Private buildings: 268
Vacated buildings: 20
Demolished buildings: 13
Other municipal buildings: 41
Vacated buildings: 8
Demolished: 1
Buildings under Solid Waste Management department: 8
Vacated: 5
Demolished: 0u00a0