Mankhurd Building Collapse Claims Six Lives Including Five Children, Renews Demands For Disaster Reforms And Crackdown On Illegal Structures

Mumbai: The collapse of a residential structure in Janata Nagar, Mankhurd, on Sunday, which claimed six lives, including five children, has prompted renewed calls for reforms to Mumbai's disaster management system and mushrooming illegal structures in the area. Govandi-Mankhurd area falling in the BMC's M-East ward, which is infamous for encroachments, vertically rising unauthorised structures.

Structure Built on Marshy Collector Land, Entire Row Illegal: BMC Official

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"The structures which collapsed on Sunday fell on Collector land, and all were illegal. The entire line of vertically and horizontally expanded structures in the Janata Nagar are unauthorised. The structures are built on marshy land. The M-East ward, may it be collector land or BMC land, has serious issue of legacy hutments which are illegal," said a senior BMC officer who did not wished to be named.

Local corporator Navnath Ban said the structure had come up around a decade ago and that three additional floors had been added later. "The walls that were supposed to bear the weight of the upper floors were not built to withstand the load. The area is former marshland that can sink under the weight of the structure," Ban said. He added that many such multi-storey buildings are constructed by people with no civil engineering expertise. "They quote the lowest cost and do the work."

Area Ranks Low in Development, High in Crime and Illegal Immigrants

The ward falls at the bottom in human and social development and one of the top ones in crime index. It also allegedly has high number of illegal immigrants and residents without valid documents.

The civic officer added that the collector office is expected to take action in the area against the illegal structures and encroachments, while BMC's designated officer also regularly takes action. However, the dense population and other civic, operational and legal challenges makes it difficult to take strict and long-term actions. Such unauthorised structures, especially built on marshy land, are poorly built, weak and prone to collapse amid heavy rainfall.

Sunday Night Collapse Kills Five Children and One Woman

Amid heavy rainfall, the house collapse on Sunday night, killed five children and one female on the spot, while one person is injured. The deceased are identified as Aliya (7), Muskan (14), Nihal (6), Nabiya (2), Soni (32) and Munaf (7).

On humanitarian grounds, the state has granted ex-gratia Rs 5 lakh compensation for the deceased's families.

Culpable Homicide Case Filed, Two Accused Arrested

On Monday, the Mankhurd police registered a case of culpable homicide following the collapse of an unauthorised four-storey building onto a neighbouring hut. The FIR names the building owner, the contractor involved in the construction, the hut owner, and private as well as government officials alleged to have knowingly facilitated the illegal structure. Two accused have been arrested, and further investigation is underway.

Meanwhile, a local community organisation has submitted a representation to the Maharashtra Chief Minister, urging the government to establish a permanent statutory disaster management authority to strengthen preparedness and reduce recurring monsoon-related fatalities.

Activist Criticises Reactive Approach, Calls for Annual Vulnerability Audits

The Govandi New Sangam Welfare Society said the tragedy exposed the vulnerability of residents living in ageing and unsafe structures, particularly in the city's poorer neighbourhoods.

Advocate and engineer Faiyaz Alam Shaikh, president of the society, criticised what he described as a predominantly reactive approach to disaster management. He said that despite substantial annual expenditure by BMC on structural audits, poor coordination between civic agencies and state authorities continued to undermine preventive action.

Shaikh agreed that many such structures were built by unauthorised persons. He called for mandatory annual pre-monsoon vulnerability audits identifying dangerous buildings, landslide-prone settlements and drainage bottlenecks. He also proposed the inclusion of technical experts from institutions such as IIT Bombay and the India Meteorological Department, alongside urban planners and civil society representatives, and the preparation of a long-term climate resilience master plan focusing on in-situ slum redevelopment and mangrove conservation.

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The representation also seeks greater accountability from elected representatives. It recommends that MPs, MLAs and municipal councillors submit annual reports on high-risk structures and preventive infrastructure spending, undertake quarterly public inspections of civic assets and dilapidated buildings, and support independent technical investigations into whether recurring civic failures result from negligence, misuse of public funds or failure to act on earlier warnings.

Residents also pointed to jurisdictional confusion between government agencies over the demolition of illegal structures.

"In this case, the land belonged to the Collector, but the BMC cannot demolish such buildings without the Collector's permission. Then there is pressure from MLAs and other elected representatives to delay demolition on humanitarian grounds," a local resident said on condition of anonymity.

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