Dangerous buildings

The Karachi city administration has asked the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to get 382 residential buildings in the city declared dangerous vacated, though no time frame has been given in this regard. The SBCA officials have only been warned that they will be held responsible if any untoward incidents happen. At a recent meeting chaired by Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani, a SBCA official said most of the dangerous buildings are in district South. There are 44 such buildings in Lyari. The official said that owners of dangerous buildings had been served with notices to get their buildings vacated, but they had yet to act on the notices. The meeting discussed the idea of disconnecting their utilities to get these buildings vacated. The issue of marriage halls built on residential and amenity plots also came up for discussion at the meeting. It was decided that district administrations and the SBCA would jointly take action to remove illegally-built wedding halls. Korangi’s additional deputy commissioner disclosed that 45 marriage halls had been illegally constructed on residential plots in Korangi.

Since old and dangerous buildings mostly collapse during the rainy season, it becomes imperative to get dangerous buildings vacated before the start of the next rainy season. When it comes to saving human life complacency or dilly-dallying becomes unpardonable. In December last year, a six-storey residential building in Soomra Gali, Ranchhore Line, collapsed. Fortunately, residents had evacuated the building just hours before it caved in after they saw cracks in walls. A detailed report of the losses has been provided to the commissioner’s office. Press reports say residents of the building are still waiting for the government’s response, and those rendered homeless are still staying with their relatives. Those to be evacuated from dangerous buildings should not be left to fend for themselves. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2020.

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