TMC to repair its 27 dilapidated school buildings in three years:Hindustan Times

None of them are dangerous but will deteriorate in a couple of years

Old civic schools in Thane will get a fresh new look. The civic body will be spending Rs39 crore to repair such schools older than 25-30 year in the next three years. A structural audit highlighted the need for repairs.

A meeting t o chalk out the repair plans for the school building was held on Wednesday.

HT had highlighted t he issue of thousands of students studying in dilapidated school buildings, which need repairs urgently.

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has claimed that the four dangerous buildings have been demolished. None of the existing 27 buildings are dangerous but if not repaired will turn dangerous in a couple of years, according to officials.

Ratan Awsar mol, a city engineer, said, “According to the structural audit of 85 school buildings, 31 schools are older than 25 to 30 years. Out of these, four are dangerous and have been demolished. The remaining 27 can be repaired. We will undertake phase- wise repair of these schools in t he next t hree years.”

In 2015-16 and 2016-17, Rs12 crore each will be spent while Rs14 crore will be spent in 2017-18. “We will choose the schools in need of urgent repair this year. Rs1.5 crore will be spend on minor repairs while the remaining Rs38 crore will be spend on strengthening t he foundation, columns or reconstruction of school buildings,” said Awsarmol.

I n 2012, a portion of an Uthalsar civic school collapsed. No one was hurt in the incident but it raised the issue of repairing school buildings.

The work of carrying out structural audit of c iv i c school was given to a private organisation in 2012.

The private agency submitted its report in January 2015.

A detailed presentation on the report was tabled before the additional commissioner in the last week of June by the Public Works Department.

The four dangerous schools were situated i n Uthalsar, Kausa, Naupada and Yeoor.

The students have all been rehabilitated in either containers, resorts (Yeoor School) or nearby TMC buildings. These buildings have been demolished till the ground floor.