MARGAO
The façade of the heritage building housing the Margao Urban Health Centre came crashing down in the wee hours of Saturday, raising question on the structural stability of the decades-old building and the safety of patients, staff and visitors to the Health Centre.
Fortunately, the incident took place in the wee hours of the day or would have ended up in a major disaster had the building collapsed during the day as visitors normally swarm the area to avail medical facilities.
The incident occurred at around 3 in the morning when the security guard woke up to a loud sound, only to soon realise that the portion of the building had collapsed.
After being intimated of the incident, Margao Urban Health Officer Dr Succorro Quadros, who was instrumental in giving a face lift to the ageing Health Centre building after taking over the reins, rushed to Margao to take stock of the situation.
With the debris including stones and mud all strewn around the place leaving a two-wheeler damaged and the top portion of the building exposed to rains, threatening the remaining portion of the building, Dr Succorro called the disaster management cell and the Margao fire brigade with a plea to take necessary action, including covering of the exposed portion of the building. He also requisitioned a JCB to clear the debris from the site.
Margao Municipal Chairperson, Damu Shirodkar, who rushed to the spot along with Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, immediately deployed the Margao Municipal Emergency Seva squad to clear the loose stones hanging on the first floor.
Given that the workers faced an uphill task to manually cover the top portion of the building exposed to rains, Margao Fire Officer Gill D’Sa called for the crane with a bucket facility to cap the building with tarpaulin sheets.
Director of Health Services, Dr Geeta Kakodkar also rushed to take stock of the situation. She told the media that the operations at the Urban Health Centre continued on Saturday after PWD engineers, who inspected the site, certified that the building housing the Urban Health centre is safe.
She, however, hastened to add that the PWD has suggested not using the building for around 8-10 days as a precautionary measure. “The Urban Health officer Dr Succorro had maintained the building as if it was his own house. He had decked up the building by giving it a facelift. There was not even a single crack noticed on the building before the portion came down”, the Health Director said.
Dr Succorro said the building was well maintained, but somehow water must have entered the façade from the top due to the heavy rains. “We have no problem with the building housing the Health Centre. Hence, the ODPs functioned as usual today. The building which collapse was being used for holding meetings and conferences”, he said, while thanking the authorities, including the Margao municipal emergency seva team and the fire services for their prompt action.
Margao MLA Digambar Kamat told media that a structural stability test will be conducted by the Goa College of Engineering. He acknowledged the services rendered by the Margao municipal emergency seva team for clearing the debris hanging on the building first floor.
“Health Director Dr Kakodkar is also here to take stock of the situation. The officials will take a call based on the stability test report if a decision is to be taken to shift the Health Centre”, Kamat added.
