After Baghajatin collapse, civic body sets SOP to fix tilting bldgs
Times of India | 17 January 2025
Kolkata: Taking cue from the collapse of the tilted building in Baghajatin during a lifting process, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has prepared a standard operating procedure (SOP) for undertaking similar corrective exercises.
According to a KMC buildings department official, the department will scrutinise parameters before giving a green signal to lift a building structure that has tilted.Saif Ali Khan Health Update'Still trying to process': Kareena's first reaction after husband stabbed'Attacker was in son Jeh's room': Saif Ali Khan's staff shares shocking detailsSaif Ali Khan attacked: 20 police teams formed to search for accused"When we receive any such application, we will send our engineers to check whether the tilt in the building has the potential to damage the structure. We may need to take the help of a structural engineer to arrive at a decision. If the structural engineer is convinced that the building needs to go through a lifting process, then we will take the next steps," said a KMC official.
According to a KMC official, the owner or promoter of such a building will then need to undertake a soil test. If the results are conducive to lifting, then an agency with credentials in such precision work may be engaged. The lifting process must be done under the supervision of a qualified structural engineer, the civic official clarified.
"We were shocked to discover that the decision to lift the tilted structure in Baghajatin was taken up by the promoter without informing the KMC buildings department. We were kept in the dark about the credentials of the agency that was brought from Haryana and engaged in a place about which the agency workers had no clear idea. The results have been obvious," said Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim.
The mayor said that from now on, the KMC buildings department officials in the borough will need to conduct regular visits to the areas where apartment buildings have come up after filling up ponds. "The buildings department officials from the boroughs will need to visit large areas in the Tollygunge-Behala belt, Garden Reach, and some areas located off EM Bypass to find out whether any building structure is tilting. Based on the feedback, we may take action on our own," said Hakim.
A KMC official added that the agency from Haryana had no idea that the building was constructed on a filled-up pond. "The promoter roped in an agency from Haryana, the engineers or the workers of which had no inkling about the nature of the soil on which the building stood. Now, we will make it mandatory for the promoters or owners of tilted buildings to concede to our SOP," the civic official said.