Crumbling apartment building evacuated at midnight

Many rush out in sleeping pyjamas; residents not even allowed time to collect valuables

KARACHI:

The district administration evacuated a building on emergency basis late on Sunday night when cracks started to appear in the structure.

The residents were not even allowed to collect their valuables and many people, in their sleeping pyjamas and t-shirts, had to rush out lest the structure might collapse at any instant. "The floor tiles were cracking, the bathroom tiles were falling, walls were cracking, we just rushed out to save our lives," a panicked resident told The Express Tribune.

Many residents of the building went to the homes of their relatives while some people in the locality opened their doors to accommodate their neighbours, particularly the womenfolk, to save them from the embarrassment of standing out in the street in the middle of the night, thinking where they should go.

The residential building located on plot no 374 Allahwala Town Korangi Sector A/31 within the remits of Korangi Industrial Area (KIA) police station will be torn down as per the recommendation of the engineers of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), officials said.

According to the residents, cracks began to appear in the walls of 10 apartments of the four-storey building built on 94 square yard plot nearly at 11:30 on Sunday night.

The area residents promptly called Madadgar police 15. As the news of a building cracking up spread, police, assistant commissioner and SBCA officers reached the site, inspected the structure and, got the residents evacuated completely and locked the main gate to seal the building.

According to the area residents, the building is two-and-a-half year old. At the time of construction of building they had observed that various materials were of substandard quality while the iron bars were also old.

The residents said that although SBCA gives permission for ground-plus-two buildings in the area, builders erect six storey buildings allegedly by greasing the palms of the officers concerned.

The area residents shared that they know the names of the people who would take money from contractors. The residents however feared facing consequences upon sharing the names since similar incidents have happened in the past. The residents were not even allowed to take out their belongings when the building was being sealed. The ill-fated residents went to their relatives homes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2021.