MUMBAI: Mumbai Police on Friday dashed off a letter to the public works department (PWD) to conduct a structural audit of the buildings in the vicinity of the illegal three-storeyed structure that collapsed and killed 12 people at New Collector Compound in Malwani, Malad, on Wednesday night.
The BMC, meanwhile, started demolishing an adjoining ground-plus-three structure that had got damaged in the incident.
“The structure was found to be dangerously tilting and therefore demolition is being carried out,” said a civic official, adding that residents were allowed to first collect their belongings.
Shoheb Shaikh, a local, said: “With no alternative accommodation available, these residents have nowhere to go.
And to make matters worse, monsoon has arrived.” The construction contractor, Ramzan Shaikh, who was arrested on Thursday, was produced before a magistrate’s court and remanded in police custody till June 16.
Police have so far refrained from arresting the owner of the building, Rafiq Siddiqui, who lost nine family members in the crash.
Police have learnt that Siddiqui’s neighbours had alerted him about a large crack forming in his building after cyclone Taukte passed close to the city’s coastline on May 17.
P-North ward corporator Vinod Mishra said Wednesday’s incident should not be called a building crash.
“This is slum with several illegal constructions growing vertically.
The BMC should have acted against them long back instead of waiting for such an incident to happen.” Officials said a survey will be carried out to identify dangerous structures in the area and demolish them in a joint operation with BMC and collector’s office officials.