Razing of Bangalore's 'Pisa Tower' halted

BANGALORE: In the wee hours of Tuesday, tension prevailed at Shantipura near Electronics City  when a five-storey building slowly tilted to its right side. A security person spotted this and raised an alarm. By 6 am  on Tuesday, the fire officials and police personnel rushed to the spot. Sources said both the contractor and builder had absconded by then. However, officials started to evacuate the building by 6.30 am. “The building next to the tilted building is a four-storey structure and has 13 flats. We reached here around 6 am and evacuated all the houses. Owner of the neighbouring building, Sarita Jha, has filed a complaint against the building owner Vijaykumar and engineer and a criminal case has been registered,” said A V Lakshminarayana, Inspector, Parappana Agrahara Police Station.Sarita claimed that there was a threat to life to residents of neighbouring buildings and this had taken place due to the negligence and  the lack of quality materials used to construct the building. “I stay in BTM Layout and when I got to know about this, I rushed to the spot. I am worried as this building was constructed a year ago,” said Sarita.“It is dangerous and this is what happens when people break rules and fail to get safety certificates,” said             T Avinash, a neighbour.Gram Panchayat officials examined the building and noted that it was an illegal construction. “The building does not have safety certificates. It is unauthorised and does not have any licence. This building was constructed in four months. Stagnant water had collected in the basement and this could have caused the tilt,” said Mariyanna, PDO, Bangalore Rural.He said, “It is illegal to construct any building with over three floors in this area. Now we are surveying the area to book charges against all such building owners,” he said.  Bangalore Urban DC N Aiyyappa said that a criminal case has been registered against the building owner. He gave the demolition orders and high reach demolition equipment was brought to the spot.   The demolition started at  8 pm. But it was stopped due to some complications and the work would continue on Wednesday afternoon, Lokesh, an operator involved in the work said.