The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has asked its ward officials to identify nearly completed buildings which can be used as quarantine centres for suspected cases of Covid-19 in case more facilities are needed by the local administration.
The civic body has already started taking over such buildings and vacant properties for the purpose.
Apart from residential buildings, hotels and lodges, the civic body is working on setting up quarantine centres in more than 350 public schools which will accommodate around 20,000 isolation beds, an MCGM official said, adding that the work of identifying and selecting such properties is being done at the ward level.
The move will help take care of people who have come in contact with Covid-19 patients and are staying in small houses and using common sanitation facilities. Moving them out will help in checking the virus spread.
Arqam Shaikh of ARC Associates, an architect firm, confirmed that Fatima Heights, one of the buildings his firm is working on in Dongri locality of south Mumbai, has been taken over by the MCGM.
Another nearly ready residential tower, One Mahalaxmi, in south Mumbai has also been identified by the civic body as a possible quarantine centre. There are several buildings in possession of private parties that are lying vacant due to the current lockdown, and the municipal commissioner has empowered commissioners of all the wards to get requisition of such properties in their jurisdiction.