Daily Times

The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in Karachi sealed a building after it was evacuated due to a three-inch tilt to the right.

The building’s occupants asserted that their structure must have tipped to one side due to the nearby unoccupied plot being extensively flooded. According to DHA spokesman Colonel Kashif, the three-story structure on Khayaban-e-Shamsheer in DHA Karachi Phase V appeared to lean to one side before being sealed.

He added that the empty plot adjacent to the building was also sealed. There was digging going on in the plot for some construction work. The building tilted some three inches towards its right side, the DHA spokesperson said.

He continued by saying that the building had been examined by the housing authority’s structural engineer, and the causes of its tilting would be determined.

He claimed that the structure was secure for the time being, but that if it bent furthermore, authorities would have to demolish it. He said that the residents of the building had been relocated.

All residents, according to the authorities, were safely evacuated. The structure included a marble showroom and was built on an 80-square yard block of land. According to the police, all of the residents’ possessions were also removed from the building.

In August, a labourer died and 10 people were left injured after a multi-storey under-construction building collapsed in Surjani Town due to alleged use of substandard material and negligence of the builder and contractors.

In July, a man was killed when a multi-storey dilapidated building collapsed in old city area of Lyari.