CUTTACK: A week after a balcony of an old apartment building collapsed in Mani Sahu Chhak locality claiming three lives of a family, the probe panel constituted to investigate the incident has flagged gross violation of the building plan of the said structure.
The preliminary report was submitted to Cuttack collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde on Friday. “The owner of the apartment had obtained permission from the Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) to construct a G+2 building. However, violating the approved building plan, he constructed a G+5 building in its place,” said the collector adding, CDA would be instructed to initiate necessary action.
As per additional CMC commissioner Kalpataru Behera, who is heading the four-member committee, it was found that the building was neither repaired nor maintained for the last several years.
“A letter has been issued to the superintending engineer (SE), Research Development & Quality Promotion (RDQP) wing of the Works department for testing the structural stability of the apartment. After getting the test report, a final investigation report will be submitted to the collector,” Behera added.
The tragic incident had occurred near Hadi Bandhu School in Mani Sahu Chhak locality on November 8 evening. The balcony of the decades-old five-storey apartment collapsed onto an adjacent asbestos roofed house claiming the lives of three members of a family including a four-year-old child.
After the incident, the collector had constituted a four-member committee to probe the incident. Apart from the additional CMC commissioner, other members of the panel include the superintending engineer, R&B, Cuttack, city engineer of CMC and assistant town planner, CDA.