Two dead after illegal seven-storey building collapses in Hyderabad’s Anjaiahnagar
Workers died and three other people were injured when a seven-storey building under construction collapsed in Anjaiahnagar, Hyderabad, on Saturday aftern...
Two workers died and three other people were injured when a seven-storey building under construction collapsed in Anjaiahnagar, Hyderabad, on Saturday afternoon. The structure, built on a tiny 50-square-yard plot over a nala, came down in seconds. For nearby residents, the danger was immediate and personal.
The dead were identified as Umesh Khare and Mopath, both tile workers from Madhya Pradesh. Among the injured was a 25-year-old resident of the adjacent Jayadarsini Residency, who was asleep when debris crashed into his home. He was taken to hospital.
Built on a drain, on a small plot
The building had risen on land that officials said sat over a drain and flouted construction rules. Accounts from local officials and police described it as an unauthorised seven-storey structure, with a penthouse, squeezed onto a 50-square-yard site in the Gachibowli-Madhapur corridor. Rescue workers later found the bodies while clearing rubble.
Residents said the collapse left a stretch that is usually used by children for cricket buried under debris. Several families were shaken, and some were temporarily displaced. Nearly 25 families are likely to be moved in the coming days.
Scrutiny turns to owner and contractor
Police registered a case against building owner Syed Sajid and contractor Khaja Moinuddin. Officials said the structure had been stopped earlier, then construction resumed illegally. Hyderabad’s HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath said Sajid reportedly owned similar illegal multi-storey buildings in the area, some of them used as hostels for students and IT employees.
Congress MLA Arekapudi Gandhi also alleged that municipal authorities had halted work for four months before it restarted. Emergency teams from police, HYDRAA, the fire department and the Cyberabad Municipal Corporation worked through the debris, and the National Disaster Response Force was pressed into the response.
No arrests had been made in the early stages of the probe. The collapse has sharpened pressure on officials in the city’s fast-growing IT belt, where illegal building activity has long worried residents. Two bodies had been pulled out by the time rescue crews kept searching the heap of concrete and steel on Saturday.
