SBCA orders evacuation of 10 more buildings

Five-storey building that was earlier vacated collapses in Liaquatabad

KARACHI:

Hours after a five-storey building collapsed in Liaquatabad, the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) declared as many as 10 buildings in the city 'dangerous' and gave orders for their evacuation.

The Liaquatabad building, near Sindhi Hotel, caved in on Tuesday night. Rescue teams as well as officials from the fire department, police and Rangers launched a search operation. However, no casualties were reported till the filing of this report.

According to Liaquatabad DSP Aslam Khakhrani, the police had earlier evacuated the building after receiving a complaint about it tilting to the side.

Khakhrani claimed that though the SBCA had been informed about the building being on the brink of collapse, no official from the regulatory body had visited the site after it fell.

Meanwhile, the SBCA issued warning letters to residents of 10 structures on Wednesday, asking them to leave the buildings as soon as possible. SBCA experts and engineers surveyed the structures in Liaquatabad, Saddar and Lyari following rainfall in the city.

The SBCA demolition squad, separately, conducted several operations against illegal structures in different parts of the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2020.