‘Structural failure made wall fall’

MUMBAI: India’s commercial capital was battered by its second highest single-day rainfall in July in 45 years that paralysed the city and claimed 30 lives, including 22 who died as sections of a wall came crashing down a slope in Malad (East) and swept away dozens of shanties on Tuesday.Ten children were among those killed in the wall collapse and over 100 were injured. It was Mumbai’s worst rain event since the deluge of 2005, with IMD’s Santacruz observatory recording 375.2 mm in the 24 hours ending 8.30 am Tuesday. Around 200 mm fell in just six hours, between 11.30 pm and 5.30 am. The highest-ever 24-hour rainfall recorded in the city was 944.2 mm on July 26-27, 2005.The wall in Malad, over one-km long and 20ft high, was built around a BMC reservoir two years ago and had shanties all along the outside slopes. After very heavy rainfall over the past few days, the water level kept rising. Around 1am on Tuesday — some said after water started flowing over the wall — a 100m section fell and the water swept away hutments at Ambedkar Nagar. About half a km away, another 50m section crashed on shanties at Pimpripada burying victims under the RCC debris. Around 78 persons were injured. Most of the victims drowned.Meanwhile, in a chilling throwback to the 2005 rain tragedy, two men, Irfan Khan (38) and Gulshad Shaikh (35), suffocated to death after getting locked inside their SUV that was stuck in deep water in a Malad subway.CM Devendra Fadnavis has ordered an inquiry into the Malad wall collapse, which claimed 22 lives on Tuesday, and announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the family of the deceased from the state government and the BMC.Experts believe structural failure resulted in the wall giving way. There was no way water accumulating on the inside of the wall, which acted like a cork to trap water flowing downwards, could be drained and it put pressure on it.The shanties that were swept away have come up on land belonging to the forest department. In 2008, they were served notices to vacate the place, but nothing happened. Two years ago, BMC built the wall to keep them out of the premises of the reservoir, and unaware of any potential danger, they settled even closer to the wall.Locals said though the water level behind the wall was rising, the BMC and forest department had not issued any alert or ordered their evacuation. Once the wall fell, people and even two-wheelers, were swept away like hay, said an eyewitness.According to IMD, the last time the city recorded the exact 375.2mm rain in a day was in July 1974. K S Hosalikar, IMD deputy director-general (western region), said a cloud patch was stationary right over Mumbai. “This doesn't generally happen. Owing to this, Santacruz observatory recorded more than 200mm rains in six hours, from 11.30am (July 1) to 5.30am (July 2). After 5.30am, there was a lull but rains again picked up later,” he said.Asked why the IMD could not earlier forecast extremely heavy rains (204.5mm and above) that the suburbs witnessed, Hosalikar said the heavy to very heavy rain warning was already in place.After the Malad wall collapse, locals from the slum were the first responders. They rushed the injured to hospital in autos, taxis, bikes or whatever vehicle they could find. The police came next. It was raining heavily, and because the hilly area is difficult to access, the fire brigade took some time to reach to the spot and faced the ire of the mob. They prevented fire fighters from going to the crash spots and insisted on first taking the injured to hospital, said chief fire officer Prabhat Rahangdale, who had joined the rescue.Soon the NDRF personnel with dogs and specialised concrete-cutting saws joined the firemen and began pulling out people from under the debris. There were reports that some in the mob pelted stones at the police alleging they were not around to protect valuables in the huts.Later on Monday, BMC workers punctured holes in the rest of the wall to allow it to flow out safely. “Since 5.30pm on Monday, the water level behind the wall had reached dangerous heights. But as we did not get any warning from the municipality, we stayed put in our homes to escape the rain,” said Arun Jadhav of Ambedkar Nagar.