Falling walls: On building collapses

In September 2020, the Bhiwandi Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra placed the Kohinoor building on its ‘danger’ list around the same time the Jilani building collapsed a few kilometres away, killing 41. Six years on, and hours after officials declared the Kohinoor to be unsafe again and evacuated around 40 residents, it collapsed, killing 10. In the half decade in between, the owners had refused to vacate or redevelop the property and instead undertook unauthorised repairs. While the fall of the Jilani building, which was old but not on a ‘dangerous’ list, was a failure of anticipation, that of the Kohinoor building, on such a list and which fell mid-repairs, implies a failure of enforcement. Yet, the State responded similarly in both instances, by suspending officials in 2020 and filing a criminal case against the contractor now. Bhiwandi, one of India’s largest powerloom hubs, has a large low-income migrant population living in small houses in densely packed neighbourhoods. With hundreds of buildings on the ‘danger’ list and no transit camps or temporary housing, residents often choose unsafe homes over homelessness, while owners continue collecting rent. Evacuation orders are also hard to enforce without police support, while allowing the corporation to claim that legal liability has been discharged on paper; demolitions are politically fraught. That both buildings collapsed during the monsoons is also not coincidental.