24 families evacuated after pillar at apartment complex in Kochi suffers damage

24 families evacuated from Panampilly Nagar apartment complex due to damaged pillar, demanding accountability and structural rectification.

A total of 24 families residing in a 16-floor apartment complex at Panampilly Nagar here were evacuated after an L-section pillar on the ground floor suffered extensive damage, exposing the steel rods within.

The families were residing in the A Block of RDS Avenue-1 apartments. Following the development, officials from the engineering wing of the Kochi Corporation visited the apartment and issued a stop memo to construction work reportedly under way near the damaged structure, citing the lack of civic agency approval.

Responding to the eviction of families due to the damaged pillar, Yacub Mohan George, who retired as Deputy Chief Engineer from the Public Works department (PWD), said the builder, contractors, project manager, designer, architect, and officials who issued the occupancy certificate must be held accountable. As per norms, all materials used in the construction should be tested and certified, and a proof check must be carried out on the structural design as per the National Building Code. He added that the report submitted by an expert committee that had been formed about a decade ago to revise the Kerala Municipal Building Rules (KMBR) should be implemented to prevent recurrence of such structural problems.

Hibi Eden, MP, who visited the apartment, demanded that a team of experts from the PWD Buildings wing, Kochi Corporation, and the disaster management team be formed to rectify the damage.

One of the apartment owners Sreenivasan Krishnan, who was formerly secretary of the All India Congress Committee, said the owners had taken up the issue of the damaged pillar with structural engineers, who opined that the problem could be rectified in another two to three months. An additional pile may be needed to bear the load of the nearly 17-year-old apartment complex. The cost-sharing arrangement for this needs to be worked out, he added.