Chennai: A dilapidated Tamilnadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) tenement, comprising 24 housing units, collapsed at Tiruvottriyur in North Chennai today.
Sources said no one was hurt in the incident as the people were vacated from the unit. Police and fire service personnel have rushed to the spot to identify whether any people were trapped under the debris.
There were about four blocks in the site. The entire ‘D’ Block unit comprising 24 apartments collapsed. The dilapidated building had already developed cracks, sources said.
Tamilnadu Minister For Rural Industries and Tamilnadu Urban Habitation Development Board T M Anbarasan told a TV channel that the housing apartment was constructed 40 years back.
Relief and rescue works were going on in the affected site, he said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister M K Stalin announced an assistance of Rs one lakh to each of the 24 families to enable them to start their life afresh.
Expressing anguish over the incident, Stalin, in a statement, said soon after hearing about the incident, he has deputed Anbarasan to the spot to oversee the relief operations and make alternative housing arrangements
to the 24 families who were residing in the block.
Stalin said he has also directed the authorities to collect details of the old housing tenements and take all preventive measures to prevent such incidents in future.