Incessant rainfall over the past 24 hours has caused widespread damage across Himachal Pradesh, including in its capital, Shimla. In the Bhatakufar area near Shimla, a five-storey residential building collapsed early Monday morning, triggering panic among local residents.
As a precautionary measure, authorities have vacated five of the surrounding buildings deemed vulnerable to similar structural failure. Fortunately, no casualties were reported. According to Shimla Rural Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Manjeet Sharma, the collapsed building belonged to a woman named Ranjana and had already been vacated the previous night due to visible signs of structural distress.
"At around 8:00 am, a five-storey building belonging to Smt. Ranjana collapsed. The building had been evacuated last night itself. There are three to four more buildings adjacent to it which are vulnerable. We've vacated all of them. Thankfully, there has been no loss of life," SDM Sharma told reporters.
Sharma further said that the possible cause could be linked to ongoing four-lane construction (highway widening) work in the area being executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). "It appears the ground has loosened due to the highway construction work, especially due to heavy machinery being used for stone excavation. However, this is a technical issue, and we will only be able to confirm the exact reason after a detailed inquiry," he said.
"Some stabilisation efforts were made by the company earlier, but they seemingly did not work. A civil engineering team will assess the structural safety of the remaining buildings. Those that are unsafe will remain vacated until further notice," Sharma added. -- ANK
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