Chennai: It was sheer luck that saved 42-year-old A R Vijayakumar from being injured or worse on Sunday morning, when part of his bedroom ceiling collapsed, burying his bed under a mound of debris. He had just stepped into his bathroom when it happened.
“Just 10 seconds after stepping into the bathroom, I heard a thunderous sound. I opened the door to find the room filled with thick dust. When it cleared, the bed I had been sleeping on minutes ago was under rubble,” recounted Vijayakumar, an auto driver living in a ground-floor flat of a three-storey building in the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board resettlement colony in West Mambalam.
The incident happened at 10am but no slum board officials had arrived to assess the damage till 2pm, leaving the family to clear the debris by themselves. The collapse has heightened fears among residents, who say the eight buildings in the resettlement colony, housing 200 families, are riddled with cracks and exposed reinforcements. Built in 1972 with 400-sqft units, the buildings have not undergone any structural checks in more than two decades, despite repeated complaints.
Experts warn that the incident underscores the urgent need for structural stability checks and immediate redevelopment. Civil engineer and regional chairman of the Federation of Civil Engineers’ Associations, E Srinivasan, stressed that buildings require inspections every 10 years to prevent such risks. “A building’s lifespan today is just 30 years due to poor-quality M-sand available in the market. Other factors such as vibrations from heavy vehicles, extreme weather, and deviations from original construction plans also affect longevity,” he said.
Social activist Joel Shelton, who researches resettlement colonies, pointed out systemic negligence.
“The board has no records of which buildings are structurally unstable. With climate change causing extreme weather, it is critical for authorities to act immediately,” he said.
Residents allege the board has consistently ignored their pleas. Vijayakumar said that even minor repairs, such as pipe maintenance, are left to the residents. Despite verbal assurances from officials about demolishing and reconstructing the buildings, no progress has been made. “We’ve been demanding redevelopment for five years, but nothing has happened,” said ward 134 councillor Uma Anandhan, who visited the site and promised to escalate the issue with the board. This collapse is not an isolated incident. The board manages 1.1 lakh tenements across Chennai and its suburbs, many of which, such as Perumbakkam, Semmenchery and KP Park in Pulianthope suffer from poor construction quality.
