Recent fire in a SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) Building at Goregaon West has led to the loss of life of seven people, three are in critical condition (at the time of writing this), 47 are under treatment.
This fire in an SRA building is not new.
| Date | Building Name/ Area | Number of Dead |
| 13th November 2018 | Veera Desai Road | 2 |
| 3rd December 2018 | Mahalaxmi | 1 |
| 22nd June 2019 | Wadala | |
| 15th July 2020 | Dahisar | |
| September 16 2023 | Kurla | 29 Injured |
| Feb 15 2023 | Kurla (Same Building another wing) | 1 Dead |
| 5th October 2023 | Goregaon West | 7 Dead, 3 Critical |
Why are so many fires taking place in SRA Buildings?
For those who are not from Mumbai/Bombay, SRA stands for buildings built by private builders over encroached land where slums once stood. Such buildings have a free component, houses given to those who give up their right to the land they occupied and sale component where the builder sells the houses in the open market to recover his cost of giving free houses and also make some profit.
The recent case belongs to this category of houses given for free. Those displaced were put in a seven floor tower with one lift.
Most of the fires that are quoted above took place due to short circuits. The reason is that the free component of such buildings are constructed without any minimum standards. Poor quality of electrical wiring is often the case in such buildings. Add to that the fact that the houses are tiny pigeon holes comprising of less than 300 square feet of space, consisting of just one room, a kitchen and a toilet /bath, the families that shift here tend to occupy any vacant space in the building creating a fire hazard.
Like in this current building, the builder does not provide facilities like constant supply of water. In the present case, residents were carrying water from outside the building and had been requesting the authorities for a water connection over several years.
SRA Buildings are closely packed buildings that perhaps violate all rules and regulations of urban development.
While PM Modi was quick to react to this tragedy and sanction payment to next of kin of dead, the underlying systemic problem remains unaddressed. There are thousands of such SRA buildings spread across the city, each a tragedy waiting to happen.
Mangal Prabhat Lodha (a builder by profession) is the guardian minister for Mumbai. He arrived at the scene and promised many things. Only time will tell how many of those promises are ever fulfilled.
