The death toll in the collapse of a five-storeyed building in Garden Reach, Kolkata has touched ten. The collapse has left several people homeless. The building was located at Azhar Molla Lane in Metiabruz which is on the city’s southwestern fringes. Residents of adjacent shanties on which the under construction building collapsed have been asked to vacate their homes.
Other than the shanties at least three other buildings in the vicinity of the building that fell at 11.49 pm on March 17 have been evacuated by the administration. These buildings, erected recently, have been built with barely a couple of feet between the structures. Some of these structures are damaged and are no longer safe. These illegal structures are in a densely populated area of Garden Reach. The alley leading to these houses was not even three to four feet wide. On Paharpur Road, a few metres away from the site of the March 17 accident two high-rises are leaning on each other leaving no space between them.
The Garden Reach police have arrested Md. Sarfaraz alias Pappu on Tuesday. He was the land owner of the plot where building was constructed.
