Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, June 22: The caving in of a 25-year-old building maintained by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) in the busy Ashok Nagar market Wednesday has raised serious concerns about the city’s old buildings.
The collapse of the building has highlighted the need for a proper safety and maintenance mechanism.
The collapsed building will be soon demolished and the space handed over the railway department for development activities, BDA officials said. It is futile to waste resources to repair public buildings that are 25 years old, as years of negligence have already taken a toll on several of them, the officials said.
“Not much care is taken of buildings once they are taken over by societies or individuals, though they are responsible for the periodic upkeep of these buildings,” an official said.
A survey of all old buildings is urgently needed, said a BDA official, adding that it is the responsibility of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to initiate such steps. At present, most of the repair and maintenance work is done by BDA, with the societies taking up the rest.
However, a BMC official said that the engineering department of the BDA has been avoiding the immediate repair work ahead of the monsoon and this might lead to more building collapses.
Official say many of the buildings, both private and public, face danger and unless immediate steps are taken the city might witness another collapse of buildings as it had happened in Mumbai some years back.
BDA officials said a number of other old buildings in CRP Market and Nayapalli in the city were in bad condition and require urgent maintenance.
