Three people were injured, one of them critically, after a slab from a fifth-floor apartment collapsed onto the flat below in Thane’s Wagle Estate in the early hours of Tuesday, officials said.
The incident occurred around 3am at Nutan Neelam Apartment, a 30–35-year-old five-storey building located in the Shanti Nagar area. The slab from flat 501, owned by Gajendra Prasad (60), gave way and crashed into flat 401, owned by Prince Yadav (25), while residents were asleep. All three injured individuals the owners of the two flats and Pradeep Yadav, a relative were rushed to the government-run Matoshree Gangubai Shinde Hospital. Due to the severity of his injuries, including multiple fractures in his legs, Pradeep Yadav was later shifted to Fortis Hospital for advanced treatment, where hospital sources said his condition remains critical. The building had earlier been categorised as a C2B structure by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), indicating it required major structural repairs but was not considered immediately dangerous. Following Tuesday’s collapse, however, civic officials conducted a fresh survey and determined that the structure now poses a significant risk. Yasin Tadvi, chief of TMC’s disaster management cell, said emergency teams including the fire brigade, public works department (PWD), disaster response units and power supply personnel were deployed promptly to carry out rescue and evacuation operations. The residential complex comprises A and B wings with a total of 26 flats. At the time of the incident, approximately 80-85 residents were present in the building.
Authorities evacuated all occupants; around half were temporarily accommodated at a nearby municipal school, while others arranged alternative housing independently. Officials have sealed the premises to prevent unauthorised entry. The PWD will conduct a detailed structural audit in the coming days, after which a decision will be taken regarding possible demolition and rehabilitation of residents. The incident has once again highlighted concerns surrounding ageing residential buildings in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Many structures built in the 1980s and 1990s are now requiring extensive repairs or redevelopment, particularly those previously flagged under various risk classifications.
In a separate incident earlier this week, a portion of ceiling plaster fell in another Thane residential complex, injuring a senior citizen. Civic authorities have reiterated the need for housing societies in older buildings to undertake timely structural audits and repair work to prevent such potentially life-threatening accidents.
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