Thane: 7 dead after slab of five-storey building collapses in Ulhasnagar

At least seven persons were killed and one person was injured after slabs of a groundplusfivestorey building collapsed at Ulhasnagar in Thane district on Friday night a civic official saidThe tragedy struck the 26year old Sai Shakti Building with 29 flats in Nehru Chowk area of the town at around 9 pmLocals said that there were some sudden rumbling sounds vibrations and then the massive crash of the slabs from the living room areas of the buildingThe slab of the fifth floor of the Sai Siddhi building in Nehru Chowk area collapsed causing the slabs below to crash too said Santosh Kadam chief of the Regional Disaster Management Cell of Thane Municipal Corporation TMCAround 9 pm the drawing room slabs of five flats right from the top floor up to the bottom one caved in On being alerted the personnel of the RDMC and the Thane Disaster Response Force TDRF rushed to the scene and launched a search and rescue operation Kadam saidWith the recovery of one more body from the debris the fatality count in the incident has now gone up to seven Three women as many number of men and one boy died in the mishap Kadam saidThe deceased belonged to two families residing in the building he addedThe operation was called off at 1246 am on Saturday following the recovery of the seventh body the official saidThe deceased were identified as Punit Bajomal Panjwani 17 Dinesh Bajomal Panjwani 40 Deepak Bajomal Panjwani 42 Mohini Bajomal Panjwani 65 Krishna Induchand Bajaj 24 Amruta Induchand Bajaj 54 and Lovely Bajaj 20 he addedAlso Read Thane Balcony of building collapses all residents shiftedThe injured person has been admitted to Central Hospital in Ulhasnagar and the rescue operation has been completedThane district guardian minister Ekanth Shinde who rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation said the state government would provide financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each deceased who include three women and one teenage boyTalking to reporters in the wee hours of Saturday Shinde said he has informed about the incident to Chief Minister Uddhav ThackerayThe state government would give Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each deceased he said adding that this is the second such incident in the area in the recent pastIn 199495 the local civic body had demolished some of the unauthorised buildings by pulling down their slabs pillars and rods However it has been observed that some developers welded the iron rods recast the slabs and reconstructed the buildings Such structures are now crashing down and claiming innocent lives he saidHe directed Ulhasnagar municipal commissioner Raja Dayanidi to shift the occupants of such precarious buildings to safer places on war footing and also initiate strict action against such buildersThis is the second such incident in the area this month On May 15 a similar slab collapse at an illegal building in the Ulhasnagar township had claimed five livesWith inputs from Anurag Kamble and agencies