Cloth merchant buried alive as two-storied building collapses in Maharashtra's Bhiwandi

A 35-year-old cloth merchant who was fast asleep inside the shop located in the ill-fated commercial complex died in the incident.

Bhiwandi: In a tragic incident, a 35-year-old man died after a two-storied building partly collapsed in Moolchand compound in Khadipar area of rural belt near Thane Bhiwandi city in Maharashtra during the small hours of Friday morning, officials said. As per the officials, the first floor of the building collapsed.

The deceased cloth trader was sleeping inside his shop. He was buried under the debris and died on the spot. He has been identified as Majeed Habib Ansari. Another 22-year-old youth named Ashraf has been rescued alive from under the debris by the fire brigade. He has been seriously injured and admitted to the hospital. The two-storied building is said to be 30 to 35 years old which housed offices of textile companies and cloth godowns.

The cause of the building collapse was not immediately known. Meanwhile, Bhiwandi fire brigade personnel leading the rescue operation is rummaging through the debris to check if anyone else is trapped under the debris. If the incident had taken place during the day, there would have been a large scale loss of life given the rush of traders and people in the commercially busy building, a Fire Brigade official said.

Significantly, the number of hazardous buildings in Bhiwandi municipal limits is estimated to be 589. The local authorities have served notice to the owners of such buildings for putting lives at risk. The authorities estimate around 25 thousand families and a total population of about 1 lakh denizens to be living in hazardous buildings here.

In September 2020, 38 people died and 25 were injured in the collapse of Jilani building in Dhamankar Naka area of the city. In the last four years, 57 people have died in various building collapse accidents and 67 people have been injured. Bhiwandi is known as the city of workers and since the working class has settled in large numbers in the rural areas adjacent to it, it has led to haphazard the construction.