Bombay High Court asks Pune municipal body to disclose number of wall collapses in last 3 years

Source:-hindustantimes

The court gave its order while hearing three petitions filed by Alcon Group, a property developer, challenging the stop work notices issued by PMC following the Kondhwa wall collapse on June 29, 2019
The Bombay High Court (HC) on Tuesday directed Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) authorities to file an affidavit regarding the cause behind a frequent collapse of retention walls by various property developers that caused several fatalities and injuries to poor construction workers over the past three years.

The two-member HC bench, comprising Justices SJ Kathawalla and Riyaz Chagla, also directed PMC authorities to explain its reasons behind permitting the developers to proceed with their projects without approving structural stability of such walls.

The civic body has also been asked to state in its affidavit whether it had taken adequate steps to ensure that the retention walls constructed by developers for their ongoing projects were in conformity with the accepted safety norms.

The court gave its order while hearing three petitions filed by Alcon Group, a property developer, challenging the stop work notices issued by PMC following the Kondhwa wall collapse on June 29, 2019.
The tragedy had claimed the lives of 15 construction workers, including two women and four children, after a retention wall collapsed on their makeshift shanties at the project site.

Alcon Group prayed before the court that it should be allowed to carry out construction activities at other projects because they were in no way linked to the Kondhwa incident.
Earlier last November, the court had struck down the stop work order issued by PMC in July 2019 for the Aspiree project, which Alcon Group had jointly undertaken with Kunal Housing, and allowed the construction activities to be completed.