Mumbai : The death toll in a building collapse incident in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra has risen to 35. The NDRF has confirmed that some more bodies have been recovered from the rubble of the building. An official of Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC) said on Tuesday that the dead included 2 small children, 7 minors, 8 men and 5 women. Meanwhile, 25 people have so far been rescued from the rubble of this 4 decade old ‘Jilani building’ of Patel compound. The building collapsed at around 3.45 am on Monday.
#UPDATE Maharashtra: Death toll rises to 35 in the Bhiwandi building collapse incident in Mumbai.
— ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2020
As it was early morning, all the people were asleep at the time of the accident, hence a large number of people have been evacuated from the wreckage. For this, the local rescue team and NDRF as well as the Dog Squad searched for more than 4 dozen people, of whom at least 10 people are hospitalized.
#WATCH Maharashtra: Rescue operation continues at Bhiwandi building collapse site in Mumbai.
35 people have died in the incident. pic.twitter.com/zHqeIWHiJ4
— ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2020
In this case, BNMC has suspended two officers Sudham Jadhav and Dudhnath Yadav late on Monday night, while Narpoli police has registered a case against builder Syed Ahmed Jilani and others.
At the same time, 102 more buildings in this minority-dominated township have been declared ‘dangerous’ and evacuated as a precaution.
This is the second major accident in less than a month in the Mumbai metropolitan area. Earlier, on August 24, 16 people were killed when a building collapsed in Mahad city of Raigarh.
Maharashtra Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Vadettiwar said that the issue of unauthorized and dilapidated buildings in Bhiwandi is very serious. This will be discussed in the state cabinet. The Minister visited the spot on Tuesday. He said that decision would be taken on approving additional FSI and other measures for rehabilitation of affected persons. Action will be taken against those responsible for the incident.