The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has issued a notice to all the ward offices to vacate the dilapidated buildings and structures amid the heavy rains. The civic body in April conducted the annual structural audit and identified 136 old wadas and buildings across the city as dangerous; of these, 103 wadas have been marked as highly dangerous. The civic body has asked the authorities to complete and vacate the premises marked as highly dangerous.
The old wadas and structures are mainly located in Pune’s peth areas, including Kasba, Shukrawar, Raviwar, Sadashiv, Navi, Shanivar, Narayan, Somwar, Mangalwar, Budhwar, Rasta, Bhawani, Ghorpade, Guruwar, Ganj, Nana, and Ganesh Peth. These wadas are in a dilapidated state due to a lack of maintenance over decades.
The decision came following an incident reported at Dhankawadi, where a wall collapsed due to heavy rains at around 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Reportedly, three kids had a close shave as the lower portion of a compound wall collapsed. The wall belonged to a residential society called Padmavati C Wing Society located in the nearby hilly area, and at least 15 families of roadside vegetable vendors live in tin sheds close to the wall which was earlier rendered structurally dangerous.
One of the families residing nearby said, "The PMC officials from our ward office and the building permission department inspected the site and now we are awaiting for the action that they will take. Earlier also we reached out to the PMC authorities regarding the poor state of the compound wall but nobody bothered to take it seriously nor the PMC nor the society."
A senior official requesting anonymity said, “Every year, we issue notices before monsoon to avoid any unwanted incident. PMC will act against owners where the wadas are in dilapidated state and people staying there refuse to repair or vacate it.”
Ganesh Sonune, civic disaster management officer, said, "Currently we are working to provide relief to the commuters by fixing the waterlogging issues by coordinating with the concerned departments. We have circulated notice to vacate the old wadas and structures to avoid any kind of disaster. We have people working in three shifts to provide quick relief to the citizens. Also the officials visited the Dhankawadi where the wall collapsed and according to their findings action would be taken."
Sonune informed that very soon PMC will have their control room and will also have a telecommunication system to take up citizens’ complaints and direct it to quick response teams for swift action.
