Dilapidated buildings: When will GHMC wake up from slumber?

Hyderabad, Aug 2 : Two tragedies and 23 deaths in the less than one month have failed to wake up the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation from its slumber.

Except for showing some timely reaction and issuing statements with full of statistic, the GHMC officials have failed to realize the threat posed by several dilapidated buildings across the city. While the City Lights Hotel building collapse on July 8 resulted in the death of 17 people, six hut dwellers were killed in a wall collapse at Moula Ali on July 24.

On both the occasions, the GHMC officials cited different reasons for the tragedies to hide their negligence. The GHMC officials have failed to locate or identify the weak structures and secondly, they did not demolish them despite knowing that they pose serious threat to the lives of common people. However, immediately after these incidents, statements were issued saying that all weak buildings would be demolished without any delay.

According to the GHMC, it has demolished 361 dilapidated buildings while 654 weak structures were identified. Further, there are several other weak buildings which are yet to make to the GHMC’s list of dilapidated structures. It means that more than 300 to 500 tragedies are waiting to happen in the city.

For instance, this dilapidated structure in this picture (attached) is located at Shalibanda Road. Hundreds of people move on the road while several others gather at a famous Haleem-eatery outlet here. One can imagine the intensity of the tragedy, if this building collapses during rush hour. Strangely, this weak structure, posing threat to the common people, is standing at a distance of less than one kilometer from the GHMC South Zone headquarters.

There are several other cases wherein the GHMC officials are showing negligence in taking action against weak structures. If no immediate action is taken, then the residents of Hyderabad and Secunderabad can keep registering one tragedy after another. INN