Since March this year, Trichy city corporation has managed to demolish 69 weak buildings, and more than 400 unsafe buildings have been put under scanner.
While the stability of government buildings will be undertaken either by the respective departments and PWD (buildings), private residential and commercial buildings in the city are under corporation’s radar.
In the 2018-2019 financial year, 10 buildings were demolished among the 398 unsafe buildings, which were identified as unsafe in a survey. In 2019-2020 financial year, the corporation said that they had identified 510 structures as unsafe. Among them, only 69 were demolished so far.
On October 30, a building at Thiruverumbur built with limestone mortar mixture collapsed over a tiled house adjacent to it. There was no casualty as the building was vacated by the occupants. “Fresh notice was served to the property owner to demolish the structure completely within 15 days. Notice was served to the owners of an unsafe tiled house adjacent to an unsafe building near Erumbeeswarar temple,” a corporation official said.
As many as 441 unsafe buildings are there in old Trichy town, and the civic body has deployed its engineering department officials to keep a check on them and to enumerate them if it failed to include any building in its list.
However, not all the property owners are cooperating with the civic body to eliminate the risk their buildings pose. Seeking time to relocate and strengthen their buildings, the property owners delay the corporation’s initiative to demolish the buildings. Several such buildings share a common wall with adjacent houses, making the situation worse.
“All the junior engineers and other engineering officials were instructed to keep a watch on the unsafe buildings this rainy season. Very weak buildings will be demolished with the help of police even if the owners are reluctant,” a senior official with Trichy City Corporation said.
If the unsafe buildings were strengthened, the property owners should avail a stability certificate either from PWD or the relevant authorities to remove their property from the unsafe buildings list.
