CHENNAI: Faulty design and removing columns from the original design resulted in the collapse of the 11-storeyed building at Moulivakkam on Saturday that killed more than 60 people, according to a 10-member taskforce of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI).
N Nandakumar, president of the State chapter of CREDAI, told Express that the taskforce, which consists of six developers from CREDAI, who are also technocrats, besides those from the Indian Institute of Science, the IIT-Madras and the Anna University, studied the building.
The report they prepared would be submitted to the State government as well as to the one-man Commission headed by Justice (retd) R Reghupathy, who would inquire into the incident. Nandakumar said the column and beam do not relate to the multi-storeyed building that the developer has put in.
“The taskforce found that the structure failed due to human error,” said Nandakumar.
He said this also highlights the need for the developers to look for credible consultants who can execute such large projects. He said CREDAI was working on bringing out guidelines for customers and a caution procedure for developers going in for large projects.
CMDA inspection
Eighteen inspection teams of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority on Thursday have started inspecting multi-storey buildings across the city.
A CMDA official told Express that each team comprising three officials have so far inspected eight multi-storey buildings and 12 special buildings.
He said the team found deviations in some buildings and some builders had given larger column sizes than approved. Following the collapse of the 11-storey building in Porur, CMDA has formed 19 teams to inspect 350 multi-storey and 350 special buildings.
Rescue operations to end today
The search and rescue operations at the site of the collapsed building in Moulivakkam are likely to be completed after a review meeting to be held late on Friday morning. The joint operation by multiple agencies is expected to finish clearing the debris by Friday morning, with work carrying on through Thursday night. The rubble has been cleared up till the basement, and there is now little hope of finding any more survivors since none have been pulled out in the past two days. “There is only about 10 to 15 square meters of debris left. Our team will work through the night to clear it. We are expecting this operation to be completed by the morning,” National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) 4th Battalion Commandant MK Verma said.