Mumbai rains: Residents of Lloyd Estate say, we warned that this would happen!

Resdents of Lloyd Estate who were hurriedly evacuated after the compound wall cavein at Wadala on Monday are furious The cavein that also swallowed a few cars of the residents there was just waiting to happen they said A year ago the residents worried by the excavation work going on dangerously close to their building had complained to the local ward office When the civic body brushed off their concerns the residents went to the small causes court against the developerIn fact we had a hearing in court on Monday and then before dawn the cavein happened Had the local ward office and court taken cognizance of our complaint this incident could have been averted said Madhav Rajput 84 a lawyer and resident of Cwing Lloyd Estate The C and D wings have 216 flats for regular residents while A and B wings are Customs residential quartersDr G M Rana and Madhav Rajput at the latters flat in Lloyds Estate Wadala PicSayyed Sameer AbediHad informed developerRajput who practises at Ballard Pier court said the residents had informed the developer about the stilt road in the society becoming uneven due to the excavation workAnother resident said Even after the wall had caved in the workers continued with the excavation work We were appalled and had to force them to stop the work Rajputs daughterinlaw Mayuri said It was around 4 am on Monday when I was rudely woken up by a loud thud I ignored it but some time later I heard the fire brigade siren and peeped out to see the entire compound wall had caved in along with the cars lined up near itRajput has been living in a 1100 sq feet 2BHK flat since 2003 current cost of the flat is R2 crore and is among the few old members of the society He said he was in the area when the excavation site housed a steel factor which was later demolished and excavation began at the spot in the past yearandahalfDosti Realty Ltd has acquired the plot and has planned three buildings of A B and C wings 3 basement ground 5 podium 38 upper floors comprising of 538 flats which would have housed 2690 people one Economically Weaker Section EWS building of nine floors consisting of 81 flats housing around 405 people and a 506vehicle public parking space for the civic body The entire project would have been completed in the next fivesix years and would cost more than Rs 700 croreAnother resident Dr G M Rana from the same wing said When the excavation work began because of the heavy drilling machines we saw cracks formed on our compound wall and interior stilt road had become uneven The developers site engineers only gave us assurances so we approached courtDr Rana said Unlike other stretches which had concrete reinforcements soon after the excavation of the boundaries nothing of the sort was done at the site of our compound wall This may have caused the caveinVehicles buriedThe residents have not yet been able to find out whose vehicles were buried in the cavein The local police dissuaded residents from trying to pull their vehicles out of the mud as they wanted to be sure that there is no human being buried alive or dead in the debris It was only in the evening after a sniffer dog confirmed that no one was buried that the police gave the nod for cranes to be brought in to pull out the vehicles which will be done on TuesdayA private structural auditor who was called in to inspect LLyod Estate gave the clearance for residents to move in the evening Rana said The structural engineer made sure that there was no damage to the pillars or the structure of LLoyd EstateFIR filedThe Antop Hill police have registered an FIR against Dosti Realty proprietor Deepak Garodia chairman Kishan Garodia along with BMCs building proposal department and other officialsWhat the police sayDCP Zone IV N Ambika said We have registered offence for negligent conduct with respect to machinery act endangering life or personal safety of others mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees and mischief by injury to public road bridge river or channel We are yet to arrest the accused Senior police inspector Sudarshan Paithankar of Antop Hill police station said We have registered an FIR and our investigation is underwayAn insurance expert who did not wish to be named said Had the incident merely been considered a natural disaster due to heavy rain the car owners would not have got their insurance claims But now that the police have registered an FIR the car owners should have no problem making vehicle insurance claimsAttempts made to contact Garodia did not yield any result A staffer at the Fort office of Dosti when contacted said I cannot make any comment on the matter you may contact our liaison officerSanjoy Deshmukh the liason officer at their Thane office said I only handle projects in Thane and have no clue about the Mumbai project and prefer not to make any comment This was strange because in government documents submitted by Dosti Realty while seeking various permissions Deshkmukh had been cited as the contact person for the Wadala projectAlso readMumbai rains Wall collapse at posh Antop Hill complex buries over 15 cars