Chennai Silks building begins to collapse

The CMDA had ordered for the building to be sealed in 2011 but the owners had gone to court to bring a stay on the same and continued functioning despite not having completion certificate

The Chennai Silks building has started collapsing. After fire-fighters tried hard to douse the fire for over 24, the building began to collapse at around 3 am. The fourth and the seventh floor of the building began to collapse. No casualties have been reported.

The 8 storey building at T Nagar in Chennai went up in flames on Wednesday. In the early hours of Thursday the building started to collapse. According to B Kannan the secretary of the T Nagar Residents Welfare Association, the walls of the building began to collapse around 3.30 am. The building now stands as a skeleton. He also said that the burnt parts of the side wall fell over a restaurant on the right side and parking, behind the structure.

Reports stated that the building allegedly lacked some fire safety measures. This was exposed during an audit by the department of fire in 2015. There was a building permission violation too. The developer had obtained permission from the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) for constructing only four floors, but ended up putting up four floors more.

Tamil Nadu Minister Udumalai Radhakrishnan said that the CMDA had ordered for the building to be sealed way back in 2011 but the owners had approached a court to bring a stay on the order. Despite being in violation of norms, the owners continued to use the building.

OneIndia News