Margao Health Centre Wall Collapse Raises Concerns

PICS: ADITYA BIDRE

MARGAO: In a startling development, a big portion of the wall of the Margao Urban Health Centre (UHC), a heritage building, collapsed on Saturday morning at 3 am.

The front portion of the building and in particular the wall on the first floor where the conference hall is located had collapsed and the broken stones fell onto the ground in front, inside the compound of the UHC.

While the UHC receives a lot of visitors in the day, the timing of the wall collapse proved to be lucky as no casualties were reported.

This was confirmed by Dr Socorro Quadros, Health Officer of the Margao UHC, who rushed to the site after the incident happened along with the Margao Fire Brigade. Dr Quadros added that the PWD Engineer had also been called to do a quick risk assessment of the building before the repair works could start.

Margao Municipal Council (MMC) Chairperson Damodar Shirodkar and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat also reached the site and the decision was taken that the MMC disaster management team would also be pressed into service to help with the tasks at hand and in bringing in machinery to remove the fallen stones.

While the access to the entrance of the UHC was blocked, a two-wheeler that was parked in the compound was also damaged.

Initially, the work carried out was to remove the stones in front and remove all debris from the UHC building. Prima facie, the reasons for the wall collapse was attributed to rainwater seeping into the wall, which weakened the structure and eventually led to the collapse. A further inquiry will be held.

Dr Quadros added that they are still in a position to continue work in a side part of the building that has been unaffected by the wall collapse. He also added that given the exterior portion of the wall had fallen on the ground in front, the damage inside the building, except for the conference hall, was limited.

However, going forward, the PWD and MMC are carrying out a thorough inspection of the building to see if the remaining portion of the heritage building is stable. 

The affected portion of the UHC will be closed for repairs and all equipment, and materials that were there will be vacated. Once the assessment is complete and only if a green signal is given for using the other unaffected portion, will the UHC continue to operate there.

In the event that it is deemed that the UHC cannot continue operations in the building, the entire UHC operations will be shifted elsewhere.