PTI
Thane
At least 10 people were killed and three others injured after a four-storey residential building, tagged as ‘dangerous’ in 2020 by the local civic body and currently undergoing repairs illegally, collapsed in Bhiwandi town of Maharashtra’s Thane district, officials said on Friday.
A portion of the Kohinoor Building in the Balaji Nagar area of the powerloom town, around 50km from Mumbai, came crashing down at 11.20 pm on Thursday, triggering a 19-hour-long multi-agency Search and rescue operation that ended at around 7pm, they said.
Rescue workers from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Thane Disaster Response Force (TDRF), and municipal fire brigade personnel from Thane city and Bhiwandi were involved in the operation as heavy machinery and sniffer dogs were deployed to look for survivors under the debris, said the officials of the district disaster management cell.
Shrikant Pardeshi, Assistant Municipal Commissioner and PRO, Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC), said that ten people lost their lives in the collapse, while three others
were injured.
He said civic officials have approached the local Bhoiwada police for lodging a complaint against the contractor who carried out repairs in the building without obtaining permission from the BNCMC.
Senior Inspector Vikram Mohite of the Bhoiwada police said the process of registering a case against the contractor was under way.
The collapsed structure comprised 48 rooms, 12 on each floor. Around 9 pm on Thursday, residents heard “loud cracking sounds” emanating from the building, an official said. Fearing the worst, locals immediately helped evacuate many families to other locations. However, while some occupants were still making their way out, the ‘B’ wing of the building caved in,
he said.
The officials said five of the deceased were identified as Shamim Shaikh (32), Ranjeet Singh (45), Miraj Rasul Shaikh (34), Santosh Kumar Pandey (42) and Shamim Ansari (30).
The BNCMC said it identified the building as “dangerous” in September 2020, and issued eviction notices on June 5 this year, subsequently disconnecting electricity and water supply. But despite that, the property owners initiated structural repair works without obtaining any permission from the civic body.
Hours before the crash, on July 30, 2026, a civic team led by an Assistant Municipal Commissioner visited the site and noticed structural instability. The team immediately evacuated around 40 residents and labourers working there, said the civic body.
The contractor and workers were asked to stop the repair work, but they refused to listen, it said, adding a few residents also refused to step out. The civic commissioner ordered a strict punitive action and criminal proceedings against the contractor involved in the “illegal” repair works.
