Wadala cave-in: 40-foot retaining wall could have prevented landslide

An inspection by structural experts at the cavein site at Wadala has revealed that a mandatory 40foot retaining wall suggested in the structural audit report last year and that was to be built from the excavation site to the boundary wall of Lloyds Estate and Dosti Blossom was never complied with resulting in the mishap on MondayIn the last 24 hours nearly 175 tons of concrete readymix valued at around Rs 14 lakh has been poured at the landslide area to prevent any further cavein Despite the preventive measures being taken at the spot from Monday another minor cavein happened on Tuesday evening next to Mondays caveinCars that had been buried in the mudslide on Monday were pulled out on TuesdayStructural engineer Nitin Kamble who had been at the spot till Tuesday morning said It is unfortunate that our plea has been ignored by both the developer and the BMC Cavities were noticed in the soil at Dosti Blossom which is close to the excavation area and next to Lloyd Estate When the site engineers were told about this they were confident nothing untoward would happen But I fear otherwiseKamble said In our audit report we had stated clearly that a Reinforced Cement Concrete RCC wall should be constructed to avoid any landslide but other than doing piecemeal work of reinforcing a few areas no wall was constructedKamble added that last year on July 31 a similar landslide had happened at the construction site on the opposite side of the excavation location We had conducted a safety audit in May 2017 and submitted a detailed audit report to the BMC and had even written to FN assistant commissioner about cracks visible on the pavements and the sunken roads and expressed our apprehension about future damage to the structures and to human life he saidCracks that had formed on the wall of Dosti Blossom next to Lloyds Estate in Wadala PicAtul KambleIn his first letter dated August 4 2017 Kamble had stated that the society members feared some distress to their buildings due to deep excavation On July 31 I got to know about the landslide due to local failure of a shoring system along the periphery of the excavated plot On August 2 I visited the site and requested that necessary steps be initiated to avoid an untoward incident Kamble stated in his letterIn his subsequent letter dated October 11 Kamble stated The temporary steel structures erected to support lateral pressure particularly where the local shore piles did not work also failed and were found collapsed during our visit on October 9 2017 Properties of adjoining societies were damaged due to this but further damage can now certainly be checkedCars that had been buried in the mudslide on Monday were pulled out on TuesdayAdvocate Abha Singh claimed that a few residents approached her to take up the case She said Prima facie after going through the documents it is evident that the local ward officials did not pay heed to the structural engineers letters or the structural audit report The assistant commissioner FN ward needs to be arrested immediately as he failed to act on the complaint Why did the local ward office not take action or were they under pressureShe added We have also moved an RTI plea seeking information about the safety audit conducted before carrying out excavation activities at the site The 2012 Notification Amending the Development Control Regulations of Greater Mumbai 1991 deleting the size and depth restrictions on basements and reducing open space to just 15 metres thereby endangering the stability of neighbouring structures said SinghShe further said Sections 37 and 371AA of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act 1966 instead of following the exhaustive procedure under Section 37 the government adopted a fasttrack procedure to delete the basement norms and ease them for builders favouring the builder lobby I am going through the documents and will decide on my next course of action soonAlso readMumbai rains Residents of Lloyd Estate say we warned that this would happen