100 old buildings tagged for demolition in city

Vijayawada: Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has identified over 100 dilapidated buildings, which can collapse at any time during the rainy season. The VMC officials have conducted a survey and prepared the list of old buildings that are in dangerous condition. These old dilapidated buildings may prove disastrous to the inmates during the rainy season. It may be mentioned that the Vijayawada city is registering more than the normal rainfall this season. An old house and lodge belonging to Ramgopal Choultry collapsed in Wynchpet two years ago. Soon after that the VMC took up survey and prepared a list of old buildings. These old buildings are located mostly in Samarangam Chowk, Kotha peta, Chitti Nagar, Suryaraopet, Satyanaraynapuram and other areas of the city.

These buildings were built more than 70 years ago. The VMC engineers verified the quality of the structures and decided to pull down to prevent disaster. The VMC officials are serving notices to the building owners asking them to demolish the old houses. If the building owners failed to do so, the VMC will demolish the structures. Property disputes between the family members and disputes between the owner and tenants prevented the VMC from demolishing these old buildings.

The VMC demolished an old building on Eluru road on Monday. A senior officer supervising the works said that the civic body issued notices three times to the building owner and finally demolished the structure with the approval of the owner.

These buildings are posing a threat to the residents during the rainy season. Keeping in view of the impending danger, the VMC is serving notices to the owners. A senior officer of the town planning department said the demolition drive will be taken up after Krishna Pushkaralu as most of the officials are busy with Pushkaralu works.