Team Herald
Margao: After the Ruby building collapse, South Goa-based municipalities had initiated a survey of old buildings that were in danger of collapsing. While Quepem municipality took action with regard to its market building, the other municipalities have failed to make much progress with their inquiries.
Sources informed that the Cuncolim municipality had faced opposition when it tried to take action against an old private commercial building, while the Margao municipality only gave promises of outsourcing the survey.
It may be recalled that Ruby Residency – a five-storey building in its final stages of construction – collapsed like a pack of cards at around 2 pm. Many labourers who were taking their afternoon nap were buried under the debris.
By the time the State administration reacted, locals had already evacuated over 35 people from the site. Canacona fire station officials reached the site by 2.30 pm, mobilising reinforcements from Margao, Curchorem, Ponda and Panjim. The following day, a 75-member National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team reached the site with rescue equipment, skilled personnel and dog squads. The collapse was declared a ‘State Disaster’.
The army personnel left the site on January 6, leaving the operation exclusively to the NDFR team, which requisitioned a special crane from Pune to crush and remove the debris.
Search-and-rescue operations were officially called off on January 14, after 31 bodies were extricated from the debris.
A commission, which was headed by V K Jha and included K G Guptha, head of civil engineering at Goa Engineering College, Farmagudi, had been entrusted with finding out the causes of the incident.
The commission submitted the following reasons: Poor conceptual designs, inherent faulty structural design and defective execution of work at the site and other factors led to the collapse. The same was presented in the Goa Legislative Assembly.
It is also to be noted that besides the 80 investors of Ruby Residency Complex (Phase–III), including over 20 flats of the collapsed building, there were hundreds of others who had invested in two other properties of Bharat Developers at Nagarcem and Devabhaga-Palolem.
