It is a tragedy waiting to happen in Mapusa, as four government buildings comprising 24 flats are beyond repair and have been declared unsafe for habitation, with portions of a slab having collapsed twice in two years.
The condition of the Junta Quarters at Angod-Mapusa is such that a government official was shocked when he inspected the buildings and admitted that they are on the verge of collapse.
While most of the occupants have left the buildings they are yet to hand over possession to the PWD. At presently, 10 families still reside in the quarters and constantly live in fear of a major tragedy.
The four buildings were constructed in 1964, but they deteriorated over the years due to poor maintenance by the PWD.
“For the last several years, I have been requesting the PWD office, located on the third floor of the Mamlatdar building in Mapusa, to repair the building, but all my efforts have been in van,” lamented Subhas B S Jetha, an occupant of building ‘D’ at the Junta quarters.
“A portion of the slab of my flat 5, collapsed on the night of June 10, 2013, and damaged the mattress along with wooden bed, lighting system, suitcase, which was under the bed, TV, table, etc,” informed Jetha.
“Luckily, I escaped unhurt. Since then, I have been requesting PWD officials to repair the building. A portion of the slab collapsed again on June 14, 2014. I wrote a letter to the executive engineer on June 16 requesting immediate repairs to the structure,” said Jetha.
When contacted, PWD Assistant Engineer Maniraj Talker said his office had written a letter to the Collector North Goa on July 9, 2013, informing about the dilapidated condition on the building, with a copy to the executive engineer.
“In his reply, the Collector requested for a list of occupants in the buildings. My office then submitted the list to the Panjim office, to be forwarded to the collector.”
“I visited the Junta House Quarters on July 21 and was shocked to see the condition of the building,” said Talker.
“I immediately prepared a report following my site inspection and forwarded it to the executive engineer at Patto-Panjim, requesting him to direct the occupants to vacate the buildings, as vertical cracks have developed on the buildings and it is unsafe for habitation,” he said.
“In my report, I have stated ‘since the onset of this year’s monsoon, the pace in which structural cracks are appearing is sounding alarm bells of the possible catastrophic structural failure of all the four buildings’,” he said. “These buildings are beyond repairs,” Talker added.
