The Indian Express             29.11.2013

BMC starts shifting survivors to Byculla

Acceding to the requests of survivors of the Dockyard Road building collapse, BMC has acquired 19 flats from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority's Simplex Mills property in Byculla and commenced the process of shifting them from its transit camp in Ghatkopar.

Sixteen families had already moved into the flats in the transit camp.

"One family has already been shifted to the Simplex Mills flat in Byculla. We have already deposited Rs 30 lakh as rent to MHADA for three years. We will take care of the maintenance costs of the building as well," additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar said Thursday.

The BMC has also decided to construct a residential structure on the site near Dockyard Road railway station where the four-storey Babu Genu market building stood before it collapsed on September 27. The other commercial buildings on the same plot will also undergo redevelopment soon, civic officials said.

"We have declared them as dangerous and have evacuated five tenants from there. We are looking for an alternate location for the shopkeepers on the ground floor," a senior civic official said.

According to the BMC, a total of Rs 1.29 crore has been disbursed as compensation to the kin of 53 of the victims who died in the collapse.