Mumbai: Collapse survivors get accomodation

Mumbai: Nearly two months after being rendered homeless, the residents of ill-fated Siddhi Sai building in Ghatkopar have finally got a roof over their head. The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) has provided them an alternate accommodation at Bhandup on a two-year lease.

The families have been offered tenements in a SRA building at Bhandup. On Thursday, they were finally handed the keys of the flats. All the families have been provided accommodation within the same building.

Siddhi Sai Apartments, a four-story structure had collapsed on July 25, killing 17 people, including two infants. The building was constructed in the early 1980s and was not on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) list of dilapidated structures. Residents of the building had claimed that the structure had collapsed due to illegal alterations carried out on the ground floor of the building by a Shiv Sena worker, Sunil Shitap.

The residents have heaved a sigh of relief after being offered an alternate accommodation. Birendrakumar Singh, a resident from the building, said, “We have been handed over keys for an accommodation. But we will continue efforts to construct our home at Ghatkopar.”

“The plot where the building was crashed is on the builder’s name. Therefore we first would need to transfer the same on the society’s name and later we would be able to start the process for availing construction permissions from the BMC,” said Mr Singh.

Binita Ramchandani, who lived with her parents in the building, said, “Though it’s a temporary home, at least now there is a roof over our heads and the uncertainty is ended.” However the Ramchandanis are yet to collect the flat keys as her father was out of city on Thursday. Binita’s mother, who was in the house when the building fell, was injured in the incident.