BENGALURU: A 70-year-old English nursery school building under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in Shivajinagar collapsed in the wee hours of Monday.
Had the incident occurred during school hours, the city would have witnessed a major tragedy. The Palike had identified the building, which housed over 90 students, as weak and not fit for occupation sometime ago. However, it took no steps to provide an alternative building to run the school.
The school on Thimmaiah B Cross Road, only about two km from Vidhana Soudha, collapsed around 2 am. A car, a goods auto and a scooter were damaged.
‘Rs 10L sanctioned for new building’
“I went to drop my two daughters, aged 6 and 4, to the school in the morning, but was shocked to see the collapsed building,” said Rihana Mohammed, a parent.
“I live near the school. After seeing the collapsed building, I informed the teachers. Later, we also informed police and BBMP engineers. We told them that children will be shifted to a nearby BBMP school temporarily,” said Prema, the school’s security guard.
One of the school teachers said the tender process for construction of a new building has not been completed by the Palike’s projects division. The local MLA had stated that Rs 10 lakh had been sanctioned to build a new building. But more money is needed to complete the building work. Before initiating any action, the building collapsed.
Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad said most of the public buildings in his constituency are more than 50 years old. Efforts are on to restore them. “There are 20 such public buildings which have to be demolished. Work on seven school buildings, three community halls and three libraries is on. The nursery school that collapsed was also on the list,” he said.