The collapse of the Kohinoor Apartment in Bhiwandi’s Gangaramwadi area on the night of July 31, 2026 — which killed nearly 10 people despite the four-storey building having already been rated C1, the most dangerous structural classification — has put fresh scrutiny on how Maharashtra’s civic bodies manage a large stock of ageing, unsafe housing.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s response, ordering forced evacuation of all C1-category buildings statewide with force authorised where necessary, signals a shift toward more aggressive enforcement after years in which formally ‘dangerous’ buildings have continued to house residents.

That enforcement gap is visible in the collapse itself: the building had already been flagged as dilapidated, and only 25 to 30 families had been moved out before the structure failed, with some residents still in the basement at the time.

Thane Municipal Corporation’s parallel directive — ordering formal notices under Section 264 of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, disconnection of utilities for non-compliant residents, and temporary municipal shelter for those displaced — outlines a more systematic enforcement process than has typically been applied to C1 buildings in the past.

For property developers, redevelopment consultants and civic contractors, the renewed enforcement push signals likely near-term demand for demolition, temporary housing and redevelopment services across buildings previously flagged but not acted upon.

The episode also carries a broader lesson for urban planning stakeholders: formal danger classifications alone do not guarantee evacuation, and the gap between a building being marked unsafe and residents actually being moved out remains a structural weakness in how India’s municipal safety systems function.

The state government’s push follows a pattern seen in other Indian cities, where monsoon-season structural failures of ageing buildings have periodically prompted short-lived enforcement drives that often lapse once the rains end.

Under Section 264 of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, civic bodies can issue formal notices to residents of dangerous structures, informing them of safety risks and initiating vacancy and demolition procedures.

Photo by Rangakuvara, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0