Final decision on Sumayya Bridge View’s future to be announced in a day: SBCA

The NED University of Engineering and Technology has declared as safe to live Sumayya Bridge View, a multi-storey building on Kashmir Road where a blaze had erupted on June 1 and caused damage to its structure.

The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) said on Sunday it would take a day’s time to come up with a final decision regarding the future of the building.

The fire had broken out in the basement of the residential building where a department store on the ground floor had established its warehouse. It took over one million gallons of water to extinguish the blaze.

After the fire was doused, the SBCA director general, Muhammad Ishaque Khuhro, wrote to the NED University vice chancellor that a severe fire had erupted on June 1 in the Sumayya Bridge View’s basement and took several days to be controlled.

The letter mentioned the apprehension that the prolonged fire might have damaged the structure of the building. “The preliminary inspection was made by the technical committee on Dangerous Building by the SBCA, [and] the building was declared unsafe for habitation till the fire was extinguished and necessary testing and retrofitting carried out. The fire has also rendered the residents homeless,” the letter read.

The SBCA had requested the varsity to devise the required tests like CAPO test, core test, steel test and other essential tests to ascertain the damage to the building “in order to take further necessary measures accordingly.”

The residents of the building insist that they be allowed to live there. However, some fear that the building might not be safe to live in after a fire that lasted for over three days in its basement and ground floor. Moreover, as around one million gallons of water were used in the extinguishing operation, water level reached six to seven feet high in the basement, which could have also damaged the foundation of the building.

The NED University submitted to the SBCA that after a complete survey of the building it had come to a conclusion that the building was inhabitable. Vice Chancellor NED University Sarosh Lodhi said that their role in the survey was of a testing laboratory. After testing the building’s basement, beams, columns and slabs, they had turned in their report to the building control authority.

He said the columns, which were affected by the inferno, had lost half of their strength. After the testing, he said, engineers would revive the strength of the columns. The repair work would take three to four months. Sindh Minister for Local Government Nasir Hussain Shah said they would form a committee to look into the grievances of the residents of the building.