Pune society residents wrote to builder in Feb: ‘wall dangerously exposed’

They told The Sunday Express that most of them had shifted to the newly constructed Alcon Stylus housing society only a few months ago and had been writing to the builder about various issues that required attention.

Ayyaz Mahaphale, a resident, said, “The builder has not yet handed over the charge officially and quite a few issues are yet to be addressed. In February, we had held a meeting with all the flat owners and one of the prominent concerns that had emerged was the danger posed by the digging in the neighbouring plot. The retaining wall, constructed for our building, was dangerously exposed due to digging right next to it. We had written about it to the builder at that time. Had any action been taken by the builder, this loss of lives could have been avoided.”

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The Alcon Landmarks is owned by Jagdishprasad Agarwal.

A group of the residents also met Pune Mayor Mukta Tilak and Municipal Commissioner Saurabh Rao, who visited the accident site on Saturday, and demanded that a structural audit of the building and others in the vicinity be carried out by competent agencies to ensure the safety of the residents.

“We have asked the Mayor to carry out a structural audit of the building, since now the residents are feeling unsafe. There are around 80 families residing in the building. We have been asking the builder to look into the issue, but there was no response from him,” Abdulla Parkar, another resident of Alcon Stylus, said.

In pictures: Pune wall collapse

Tilak said experts from College of Engineering Pune (COEP) will be roped in to check the structural stability of the building as demanded by residents.