Hyderabad: Building tilts in Chintal after an attempt to lift it

An attempt to lift a building above the ground using a hydraulic jack failed with the structure ending up with a tilt.

Hyderabad: He planned to ‘lift’ his house but ended in having his abode razed to the ground.

Perturbed at rainwater entering his house located in Srinivas Nagar, Chintal, the owner decided to raise the building height using hydraulic jacks. But his plans just went awry when the G 2 structure instead of rising up, ended up tilting to a side.

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The house owner had availed the services of a private agency to lift the building. However, repeated attempts of the agency at raising the two-storied building with hydraulic jacks failed, and apart from the damages to the ground floor and compound wall, the building on Saturday tilted around 10 degree towards adjacent building.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials who on receipt of the information rushed to the spot, said the house owner took up the task of raising the building without any permissions.

“According to the owner of the building, the road in front of his house was more elevated resulting in rainwater gushing in. Due to this, he wanted to raise the height of his building,” said an official.

Meanwhile, Quthbullapur MLA, KP Vivekanand visited the place and said the land where the two-storied structure was built had loose soil because of a nala flowing behind. “The building owner did not avail technical expertise and no soil test was done,” he said.

The GHMC officials after contacting experts took a decision to demolish and started pulling it down on Sunday evening. The tenants living in the building raised objections stating their furniture and other household items were inside it. The private company that was entrusted with the work to raise the height of the building, also requested the GHMC for an opportunity to fix the issue instead of demolition.

However, officials said if the structure was not pulled down, it might turn out to be a threat for not only for those living in the building but also those in adjoining homes. “Experts from JNTU were contacted and they too suggested that demolition is the only option and structural changes will not make the building safe,” an official added.