Mumbai: Twenty five buildings that once housed 1,200 families at Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Nagar in Sion-Koliwada will be razed to the ground starting Monday, after an eight year-long battle between residents and the civic body, which first issued demolition notices in 2014. The residents have undertaken to demolish the buildings and have appointed a private contractor.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) notice declared the buildings dangerous for habitation and placed them under the C1 category, which deems the buildings uninhabitable and fit for demolition —but it was only at the start of 2022 that the BMC disconnected their electricity and water supply. The BMC has two categories of old buildings (any structure older than 33 years): C1, which pertains to dangerous/ dilapidated buildings and C2-B, which are repairable buildings.
The GTB Nagar buildings came up in the 1950s and ’60s to house residents of the Sion Koliwada refugee camp, who migrated to India from Pakistan in 1948 following the Partition. Over the past two years, several residents relocated and began living on rent at the city’s edges in Panvel, Kharghar, Thane and Vashi. All 25 buildings in GTB Nagar are in a state of ruin with crumbling walls, leakages in ceilings, exposed wires in passages and structural members like beams and columns in disrepair.
However, one family has stayed back in the crumbling building despite the lack of water and electricity.
“People in slums also live without electricity. So, we are managing. We are surrounded by darkness and it is intimidating for the children, but I feel safer in this Punjabi colony with my daughters as it is in close proximity to the gurudwara,” said Harneet Kaur Narula, a resident of building number 25, who stays with her ailing parents and two daughters. Each night, the family braves the dark by lighting candles. Since it’s raining, they don’t feel the heat too much nowadays, she said.
Narula’s day begins with a trip to the gurudwara, where her father performs ‘seva’, to fetch water for their daily needs. The gurudwara also provides them langar. She recently requested the committee to provide them light and a fan.
“My husband passed away in January from cancer. My mother is bedridden and my aged father has no income after he stopped driving his taxi two years ago. My mother is paralysed so I have taken up a part-time job as a receptionist in a clinic which pays me ₹12,000 a month. Renting a room costs at least ₹18,000 and I cannot afford it. How will I feed my school going children if I pay such a huge rent?” Narula said.
Another family living on the first floor of their building vacated a few days ago.
“We have nowhere to go and I cannot afford to rent a new place,” Narula said. “Now the BMC has pasted a notice and issued an order that our building will be demolished,” she said.
A long-drawn out battle
In 2014, following the BMC’s notice, the residents invested ₹32,000 for each building to have a structural audit conducted. Their audit challenged the C1 categorisation, and declared that the 25 buildings came within the C2-B category, and required urgent structural repairs. However, in 2018, the Supreme Court overruled the residents’ audit report and stated that the buildings were C1 category.
In May 2022, Sukhdeo Singh Mehra, a resident of building number 8, filed a writ petition in the Bombay high court (HC) and submitted an undertaking signed by other residents which stated that they would demolish the buildings themselves without intervention from the civic body. On June 28, the HC passed orders stating that the BMC could demolish building number 20, where partial demolitions were conducted in 2018. It further stated that the all shop owners — the buildings also house 370 shops — should vacate within a week. Following this, the BMC pasted its final notices for the shop owners.
“The BMC had invited spot tenders to demolish all 25 buildings and they claimed it was government land. But this was a freehold ownership land. We have peacefully vacated and will demolish on our own starting Monday,” Mehra said.
“If the BMC demolishes our buildings there are chances of encroachments on our land. We will erect a boundary wall, but the BMC didn’t want that. Their intention was to acquire the land and hand it over to the builder. We learnt of it and the BMC was unable to prove government ownership of land,” he said, adding that a contractor has been appointed to erect a boundary and this will happen starting Monday.
He pointed out that the 1,200 families, including those who moved out, have already faced many inconveniences over the years. Many had to sell their jewellery to pay their rent, he said. “We will give a letter to BMC and police that we will demolish on Monday,” he said.
Civic body speaks
Gajanan Bellale, assistant commissioner, F-North ward (which includes GTB Nagar) said that the civic body had started demolishing building number 20 in 2018 after the SC’s order.
“We undertook demolition of building number 20 but residents of the society moved court. Only 10 percent demolition is remaining for building number 20,” Bellale said.
Some shop owners continue to run their shops secretly even though the HC has directed them to vacate the premises within seven days, he added.
“The BMC was ready to demolish all 25 buildings but as per request of the society they have taken responsibility to demolish on their own. Every week, a portion of the building comes crumbling down,” Bellale added.
While the society is largely empty, a few poor residents continue to live in some of the buildings. Teams have been deployed and there is a continuous drive to evict them from the premises at present, Bellale said.
A slice of history
Parvinder Singh, who began living in building number 21 in 1990 but relocated to Thane with his sons, said that he bought his place from a Punjabi refugee from Pakistan.
“They formed a society called Frontier Punjab and procured 110 acres of land. At least 19 buildings were constructed in 1958 by the Central government which housed over 900 families. In 1962, six more buildings were constructed by the public works department of the state government,” Singh said.
It took 10 years in court to ensure that the land wasn’t parcelled off to the government.
“Some residents have their own interests. But there are families who are middle class driving taxis and cannot afford rent. It is like reliving the Partition for them,” he said.
Ajit Singh, another resident who owned a shop and a house in buildings number 4 and 25, said only a few were fortunate like him to afford to relocate.
“I am the son of a taxi driver and used to wash cars. My mother used to conduct prayers at the Sion gurudwara and got paid Rs70 in 1995. My grandmother used to sell milk. We have come up from humble beginnings. Now I am a well settled businessman and bought a two-bedroom house after selling our jewellery.”
The move to demolish these unsafe structures in GTB Nagar gains prominence in light of the recent collapse of a building in Kurla which left 19 people dead.