Building in Teynampet tilts after owner digs for tank
Karthikeyan Hemalatha
Chennai:
A three-storey residential building in Teynampet started tilting ominously on Monday evening and would have fallen had a similar-sized building next to it not dramatically arrested the collapse.
The tumbling structure crushed one of the neighbouring building's balconies.
Police and rescue personnel said no one was injured.Families occupied houses on each floor but there were only two people inside when the building started to tilt. They got out safely.
Officials said there were several illegalities in the con several illegalities in the construction of the building, which came up five years ago on Bhaktavachalam Street near SIET College. This could have caused it to lose its bearings, they said, adding that they would raze the structure.
Officials started preparations for the demolition late on Monday .
As gawking crowds gathered, police barricaded the street to keep people at a safe distance from the building. At the spot were large chunks of concrete from the crushed balcony of the neighbouring building and other debris was strewn all around.
But perhaps the most important clue lay in a mound of sand nearby .
Corporation of Chennai engineers who visited the spot said the building's occupants had started digging a sump last week and that could have weakened the building's foundations.
“The foundation pillars were most probably weak and, during digging for the sump, workers must have hit a spot that was bearing the load of the building,“ an engineer of corporation's Zone 9 said at the site. Officials evacuated tenants of both buildings.
The owner of the building, P Vellan, said he learned about what happened when neighbours telephoned him.“The neighbours said they felt their buildings shudder like there had been an earthquake,“ he said. “I rushed to the spot to see what had happened.“
Vellan admitted that he did not employ an engineer to plan or construct the building. “We used a contractor for the construction of the building,“ he said.
“The buildings on the street have no set-back area. There are several violations,“ the corporation engineer said. “Buildings on this street can only have two storeys. But most have more than two.“
The city has hundreds of illegal buildings, with owners deviating from approved plans to add floors and increase built-up space, compromising their structural integrity and jeopardising the safety of their occupants.
Monday's episode took place just a little over a year after a 12-storey building a developer was constructing in Moulivakkam collapsed, burying 61 people in its rubble.Investigations showed Chennai Metropolitan Develop ment Authority had given permission to build twin tow ers, Trust Heights, of six storeys each but the developer, Prime Sristi, illegally added six floors to each building without strengthening the oundation or reinforcing co umns and beams.
“The owners of most residential buildings do not engage engineers during construction and don't follow the approved plan,“ an official with Anna University's Cen re for Disaster Management and Mitigation said. “These structures make up roughly 80% of the buildings in the city. They can collapse at any ime.“
