The Sindh Building Control Authority has declared over 400 buildings in Karachi “dangerous” for living. The report prepared by The Sindh Building Control Authority’s Technical Committee on Dangerous Buildings said there are at least 422 dangerous buildings in the city. Of them, 273 dilapidated ones are in Saddar Town alone. According to the report, there are 49 such buildings in Lyari, 46 in Liaquatabad, 10 in Gulberg, nine in Jamshed Town, eight in Gulshan Town, six in Malir, four each in Keamari and North Nazimabad, and three each in Baldia Town and Shah Faisal Town. The The Sindh Building Control Authority SBCA) officials say they have issued evacuation notices to owners of these buildings. But people don’t evacuate them because of no alternate places to live, they say. The report by the The Sindh Building Control Authority SBCA) came two days after a multi-storey building collapsed in Lyari. According to the area residents, the building was trembling minutes before it collapsed, killing at least 13 people. The June 7 building collapse was the third such incident in the city since December 2019. In a meeting at Karachi Commissioner House, Sindh Minister for Local Bodies Nasir Shah instructed The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) officials to stop illegal constructions and start an anti-encroachment operation in the city. In December last year, a six-storey building had collapsed in Karachi’s Timber Market area. Fortunately, no one was killed in the incident because the residential building was empty.In March this year, at least 25 people were killed after a five-storey building collapsed in Gulbahar’s Rizvia area.
