VASCO: A portion of the balcony on the third floor of four storied building in Vasco city collapsed on Friday morning, no injuries were reported.
According to information, the incident occurred at around 5 am when the balcony of a rented flat located in the Pushpanjali Cooperative Housing Society Ltd collapsed. It caused panic among residents in the building which has already been declared unsafe by the Mormugao Municipal Council. The council had even issued eviction notices to the flat owners in 2011, however residents continued to occupy the flats and shops. .
“This building is 35 years old and has 35 flats, 15 shops on the ground floor. As the building was already declared unsafe, only 10 flats and 7 shops were occupied while other flats and shops were left vacant. Today at about 5 am, the balcony slab came down crashing, luckily there was no one in the balconies below on the third floor and even on the ground, otherwise it would have been serious” said one of the residents of Pushpanjali Cooperative Housing Society.
After the incident, fire station officials, MMC officials rushed to the site and directed the residents to vacate the building immediately as the entire building has developed cracks.
A committee member of Pushpanjali Co-operative Housing Society Ltd who was present at the site said, “Soon after MMC issued notice to the committee, we warned all those occupants who continue to live in the building.”
