Ahmedabad is an ancient city and so are many of its buildings. The heavy rains this year in the June-July period was a stark reminder of this fact as scores of old buildings collapsed in the city, especially in the Central zone.
Most of these structures were around a century-old and in dilapidated condition, said sources. According to them, 125 buildings collapsed during the two months of pounding rains.
The city’s Central zone wards include Shahibaug, Asarwa, Khadia, Dariapur, Jamalpur and Shahpur under the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
According to an AMC official, a number of buildings have been given the notice of repair but “there’s a lack of will to repair them”. Most of these buildings saw partial collapse of galleries or slabs or other parts precariously hanging.
“The Central zone is densely populated. Many of the houses are almost a century old and have tenants living there for decades. Often conflicts arise between the owners and tenants regarding possession of the buildings. This makes the task difficult for us to remove the structures,” the official added.
AMC officials further said, “There are times when people living in this zone are unable to afford the price of repairing their private structures. On one such incident, a notice was served to a dilapidated heritage building where both father and son were staying. The house collapsed and the elderly person expired.”
There are times when the condition of a collapsed house is so bad that even removing the debris becomes a challenge. Many times the staff members were lucky to escape serious injuries while demolishing such structures.
Over 1,500 notices have been issued by the AMC to health quarters and slum quarters in the zone to get the dangerous structures repaired. One of the health quarters from Jamalpur to Sardar Bridge has 312 houses and were given notices. The other quarters in Shahpur, Girdharnagar, Asarwa, Shahibaug etc were also given notices for the dilapidated structures.
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