Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike or BBMP, Bengaluru's civic body has started issuing notices to owners of 178 buildings across the city and asking them to vacate the premises. The BBMP officials say that these 178 buildings are “on the verge of collapsing” as they have structural flaws.
Of the 178 buildings, the BBMP issed notices to 77 building owners on Monday and have asked them to vacate the premises immediately and make way for structural audit of the building. BBMP officials say that notices to the remaining building owners would be issued by the end of Tuesday.
Of the 77 buildings, 30 are located in the South Zone, 6 in the West Zone, 33 in East Zone, 8 in Yelahanka and 2 in Mahadevapura Zone.
In July this year, the Karnataka High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of unauthorized and illegal constructions in Bengaluru after two buildings collapsed in Cooke Town and killed five people. The Karnataka High Court had pulled up the BBMP for not taking action against unauthorized and illegal constructions and it was then that the BBMP conducted a survey based on the court's directions.
“The court had asked us to conduct a survey of all buildings in Bengaluru and come up with a list of structurally unsafe ones. Each zonal chief engineer was directed to conduct a survey and so far the survey has been completed in five zones,” said Prasad, BBMP Additional Commissioner of Town Planning.
Once the structural audit is complete, the chief engineer of each zone has been instructed to write up reports stating whether the structural defects in each building can be repaired or not.
“The owners, whose buildings can be repaired, can make the necessary repairs and only then can people occupy the building. If the building cannot be repaired, the BBMP will demolish such structures," Prasad added.
The survey revealed that the buildings had either not complied with prescribed norms during the stage of construction or used substandard materials.
In the Cooke Town building collapse case, the builder had constructed one additional floor without approval. The foundation and the building plan were flawed. The strength of the building could not withstand the weight of the additional floor and the people and items lodged in the building; Additional Commissioner Prasad says.
“In most of the cases, the building plans show two or three floors and the actual structure has more number of floors. There are a lot of such constructions in Bengaluru but in the ones we have identified, the structural integrity of the building cannot withstand the weight of the additional floors like the Cooke Town case,” Prasad said.
Speaking to TNM, head of BBMP Legal Cell Keshav Deshpande said that the Karnataka High Court had instructed the BBMP to conduct an audit in July. The survey was completed last week and the details were also submitted to the High Court on Friday.