Hyderabad: The owner of the under-construction residential building that had collapsed in Nanakramguda a few days ago, has confessed to the police, admitting that the base foundation of the structure was constructed only for a ground plus three-floor building, but he had later decided to add three more floors. Sathyanarayana Singh, also reduced his construction costs by compromising on the quality of materials such as cement and metal.
In his confession to police, Singh said he had planned to rent out the building to IT professionals and wanted more space for the parking of vehicles. In order to create that parking space, he compelled the contractor to remove the crucial middle column of the foundation. “As per the initial design, it was a three-column foundation with enough number of pillars. But Singh wanted maximum space for car parking and he made the builder and architect remove the middle column, weakening the structure,” Cyberabad Commissioner of Police, Sandeep Shandilya, said.
Singh was also expecting to earn around Rs 1.2 lakh in total from the 12 flats as rent, per month. He was also planning to build more such buildings in the future, he confessed. “All these changes (in the number of storeys) were made during the construction, which meant the foundation was designed for a three-storey building. But they built double the number of stories,” said an investigating official.
It has been revealed that Singh was warned by the building contractor about the weakness of the foundation and the possible damage that might occur in the future. Greed, however, seems to have compelled Singh to ignore the warning. Investigating officials and structural experts are now checking how much initial damage was caused to the collapsed building by the deep excavation at the construction site of the neighbouring Sumadhura Acropolis building.
