Choked Mahal Sits On Tinderbox, Complaints, Fines Go Up In Smoke

Time of India

10 hours ago

Nagpur: The civic body's abject failure to act decisively on illegal commercial activities inside residential premises led to Saturday's deadly fire in Mahal, which killed two and left two others injured.
Sources said the flat where the blaze erupted was long used as an illegal godown to stock fireworks and electrical material. Despite repeated complaints by residents and several notices by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), no concrete steps were taken to remove the dangerous material. The flat owner, Girish Khatri, who died in the fire, was warned multiple times by civic officials but continued to ignore the orders.
Assistant commissioner of Gandhibagh zone, Ganesh Rathod, confirmed that NMC issued multiple notices and even levied a Rs10,000 fine on Khatri in February. "We also imposed a daily penalty of Rs100 until the fine was paid. But he didn't comply and instead moved court," Rathod said.
Residents of the building claimed they raised the issue with the civic body about the illegal storage several times, fearing precisely the kind of disaster that eventually struck.
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"We filed several complaints, but no action was taken beyond slapping notices," said one resident.
The fire, which broke out on the first floor of a G+4 building, led to panic as fireworks began exploding. Fire tenders had to park on the main road and manually carry hoses into the narrow lane where the building stood. "Fortunately, the building was not too deep inside the lane. Had it been located further down the lane, the consequences could have been far worse," a fire department official said.
This incident has once again underlined the vulnerability of the Mahal market area, much of which is crammed into old, narrow lanes where access for emergency services is extremely limited. Locals say that several other illegal godowns continue to operate in residential buildings across Mahal, making the entire area a disaster waiting to happen.
Central Nagpur MLA Pravin Datke, who visited the incident site, held the civic body accountable for the avoidable tragedy.
"Residents repeatedly complained. NMC did issue notices but failed to enforce them. Had timely action been taken, this tragedy could have been avoided," Datke said.
This isn't the first such incident in a crowded Nagpur market. In August last year, a fire in a G+2 unauthorized residential-cum-commercial building in Itwari claimed the life of 17-year-old Anushka Bakhade. She died of suffocation after hiding in a bathroom to escape the blaze.
Like Mahal, Itwari too is known for narrow lanes and mixed-use structures where residential buildings are used for commercial storage and activities, often illegally. Fire officials then, too, faced immense difficulty accessing the site.
The Mahal fire has reignited concerns over the unchecked commercialization of residential properties and the NMC's repeated failure to act with urgency, even after being warned. With many such ticking time bombs in the city's crowded commercial zones, Saturday's tragedy is a chilling reminder of the consequences of civic inaction.
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