Cover shaky Fort building in 24 hours so we can reopen road: BMC to Mhada

MUMBAI: The BMC on Tuesday gave Mhada a 24-hour deadline to safeguard

Kothari Mansion in Fort

in such a way that the busy road alongside, which has been shut since the building caught

fire

on June 9, can be reopened at the earliest for the public.


The road is key for movement of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic as it is the pathway from CSMT to the Reserve

Bank of India

(RBI) building.

In a letter to the executive engineer of the Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board, Mhada, the BMC said that while Mhada had on June 9 already issued work order to a firm for pulling down and partly demolishing Kothari Mansion, a cessed building which had been declared “dangerous,” the building has still not been pulled down or safeguarded. This poses a risk to pedestrian and vehicular traffic. “The adjoining roads are cordoned off, which has caused grave inconvenience to the public at large,” the letter stated. While a portion of the building collapsed during the blaze, the rest of the building is endangered and may collapse any time, said an official.

Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of BMC’s A ward, confirmed that the letter had been sent and said they are keen that the road be reopened. “It has been a long time now that such a crucial road has been shut to the public. Hence we have asked Mhada to look into the matter urgently,” Dighavkar said.

On June 9, a massive blaze broke out in the British-era ground- plus-four structure at Fort popularly known for the Light Of Asia restaurant. The fire investigation report concluded that the blaze was caused owing to a defective electric circuit on the common meter box on the ground floor. On the day of the blaze, the firefighting team had a narrow escape as a few minutes after 10 firemen and two firefighting vehicles moved to a safe distance, a part of the building collapsed. Two firemen who got stuck on the fire ladder sustained minor injuries. They were admitted to a hospital and are out of danger. Firefighting and cooling operations continued for over 12 hours. An adjoining building, Patel Mansion, was also damaged.