Survey of unsafe buildings in Margao hits roadblock

MARGAO

Guess how many old, dilapidated and unsafe buildings have been identified in the commercial capital by the Margao Municipal Council as per the instructions of the South Goa district Collector Jyoti Kumari?

Well, the Margao Municipal Council is believed to have submitted a list of buildings compiled by the civic body around a decade ago, before the district Collector issued a fiat to identify all the old and unsafe buildings dotting the city.

Sadly, while strangers visiting the city will come across dozens of old buildings, including unoccupied buildings, standing tall in the Municipal jurisdiction, the survey to identify such buildings seemed to have not made much headway till date.

In fact, if officials are to be believed, the survey to identify the dilapidated and unsafe buildings has hit a road block over a host of reasons. Ask Margao Municipal Engineer Manoj Arsekar on the status of the survey to identify the dilapidated buildings and don’t be surprised if he replies back saying the Junior municipal engineers are on the job to conduct the survey.

The Goan, however, understands that the survey has come across a host of hurdles, including technicalities, how to go about the work in identifying the dilapidated buildings. “Many an old building may appear dilapidated and unsafe from outside, but the Municipality cannot declare the same as unsafe”, remarked a senior MMC official.

The official further pointed out unless and until any agency, whether it is the Goa College of Engineering or a private agency certifies that the building is unsafe, the Municipality cannot "declare a structure as unsafe and order demolition.”

Here comes the big catch – how and who will fund the structural stability test report, which may cost around Rs 50,000 and above depending on the size and nature of the building?

The official added: “In cases where the buildings are in dispute between the owners and tenants, the owners of buildings are not at all interested in spending money on the structural stability test. The reason is not far too seek. Who will come forward to conduct a structural stability test when the tenants are paying peanuts as rent. Moreover, the owners may not be keen in the maintenance of the buildings and the tenants staying put in the building to assert their tenancy rights”.

That’s not all. With the Municipality under the control of politicians and the nexus between the real estate developers and the political class is an open secret, sources wondered whether any municipal body will do justice to the job keeping in mind the interests of the safety and security of the citizens.

To tide over the situation, a municipal official said the district authorities should order the survey of all old and dilapidated buildings under the Disaster Management Act to take care of the funding of the structural stability reports and incentivize the owners to go for demolitions of the old buildings with increase in Floor Area Ratio (FAR). “The district  Collector, who is the Chairperson of the district Disaster Management Authority should constitute a team of officials drawn from different agencies, including the Collectorate, Margao Municipal Council, Town and Country Planning and SGPDA and agencies involved in conducting structural stability tests,” the official added.

The issue of old and dilapidated buildings have raised its ugly head in the commercial capital after partial collapse of buildings during the monsoons last year and the recent incident of a concrete slab crashing down in the busy Margao market areas.