Mumbai: A family of three from Odisha’s Ganjam were among the six killed after a slab of the fourth floor caved and the debris crashed through the lower floors of Saptashrungi Building at Mangalaragho Nagar area in Kalyan East on Tuesday afternoon.
According to reports, the incident took place when Pramila Kalcharan Sahu (56) of Ganjam’s Purushottampur was visiting her daughter Sunita Nilanchal Sahu (39), who resided on the second floor of the building constructed in 1995 and declared dangerous for living by the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC)’s J-Ward last month. Sunita’s daughter Shraddha
(12), her sister Sujata Padi (38) and her nephew Vinayak Padi (4) were also in the house, celebrating the summer vacation together.
Sunita, Pramila and Sujata died in the successive collapse of the third and second floors while labourers were carrying out maintenance work, the Hindustan Times reported.
Sunita’s son 16-year-old Ganesh, who survived the incident as he was at tuition, said, “Sab khatam ho gaya.”
According to KDMC Commissioner Abhinav Goel, 12 people got trapped after a section of the building’s slab in a garden area collapsed slightly around 2.30 pm. “There were over 50 families in the building. As far as we can tell, the building is about 25 years old. However, the collapse didn’t affect the entire building, only the left portion where the slab fell. At that time, a few people were present in that area and were unfortunately impacted,” he told PTI.
Maharashtra Chief Minister announced a financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh for the bereaved families. “Deeply pained by the news of the building collapse in Kalyan that claimed six lives. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims during this difficult time,” Mr Fadnavis states on X.