Due to illegal digging of basement in Naka area of Lucknow, the capital of UP, two under-construction buildings collapsed at around 1.00 pm on Wednesday afternoon. The police reached the spot, evacuated the nearby houses and tied a rope to stop the traffic on the road, due to which there was no loss of life. The police saved nine members of two families, but their entire household was buried under the debris. Also, the boundary of neighbor Shiva Arora and the scooter parked there was broken. Deepu, the contractor who constructed the building responsible for this incident, has been taken into custody by the police. In case of building collapse, the team of LDA (Lucknow Development Authority – LDA) reached the spot to investigate. In which it was found that the basement in the pre-constructed residential building was dug illegally, due to which the accident occurred. After which, on the instructions of Additional Secretary of the Authority, Gyanendra Verma, the work of removing the debris was done by calling for JCB and dumper. Zonal Officer DK Singh of Enforcement Zone-6 said that the entire incident was immediately investigated, in which statements of families living in nearby houses and local shopkeepers were also taken. During investigation, it was found that the building with an area of about 750 square feet was constructed long ago by the owner of building no. 288/203, Krishna Kumar Dwivedi and Anil Kumar Dwivedi, son of late Hanuman Prasad Dwivedi. On the night of January 2, the owner was secretly constructing a basement by taking out soil from inside the building.
The victim’s family will get a house in Shardanagar scheme.
In this building, Satendra Dwivedi’s son Virendra Dwivedi has an old house with an area of about 600 square feet. Due to the basement being excavated contrary to the standards, cracks appeared in two buildings at 10:30 am on Wednesday and nearby houses started shaking. Due to this, when people came out of their houses, they saw that the building had become tilted. People informed the police, who immediately reached there and started rescue operations. Due to the fear of the building collapsing, there was chaos in the nearby houses and the crying of women and children. Neighbors sent the children to relatives’ houses. The building owners got the repairs and excavation of soil done without informing the authority and without taking advice from any other expert agency regarding structural security. In view of all these points, FIR has been lodged by Junior Engineer Imtiaz Ahmed in Naka Kotwali against the owners of building no. 288/203, Krishna Kumar Dwivedi and Anil Kumar Dwivedi. Vimala, the tenant of lawyer KK Dwivedi, told people that her family had been living in this building for almost 60 years. His life was saved when the building collapsed, but his entire life’s household got buried inside it. Five members of the family lived in the part on the other side of the basement. Vimala also told that KK Dwivedi’s family does not live in the house that collapsed. The excavation of the basement was going on at night. On the performance of the family, LDA has assured to provide Prime Minister’s residence in Sharda Nagar scheme.
First the building tilted and then collapsed
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The building started tilting from 10:30 am onwards.
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At 11:00 the police closed the road and started rescue.
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Building collapsed in front of everyone at 1:05 pm
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Building debris started rising from 4:00 pm
Action will be taken against those responsible – Additional Secretary
Additional Secretary LDA Gyanendra Verma said that due to illegal excavation of the basement, the building of two houses adjacent to each other collapsed. No permission was taken from LDA for digging the basement by the building owner. Due to this, a complaint was filed in Naka Kotwali, along with this, other action will be taken.