Transport dept building demolished after collapse of portion

A 65-year old building a portion of which collapsed last week killing eight workers of state-run transport corporation at Porayar in the district has been fully demolished, officials said today.
The demolition work of the building, part of the Porayar depot of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC),began on Monday and was completed yesterday, they said.
Eight crew members of the TNSTC died when the roof of the retiring room in which they were sleeping collapsed around 3 am on October 20.
District Disaster Management department's Project Director Rajaraman today inspected the site and all other buildings in the depot.

He told PTI that the inspection was part of review of all government and school buildings, particularly old ones, in the district ahead of the North East monsoon, set to start this week.
"As far as the Porayar TNSTC depot is concerned, we have inspected all other buildings, including the administrative building, canteen, kitchen, toilets. we will submit a detailed report to the government," he added.

Office bearers of many TNSTC unions, including the CITU, have said the collapsed building was in a 'precarious' condition and they had submitted representations to the authorities to refurbish it or construct a new structure.

The main building of the depot was built in 1943 by the then leading private bus operator Sathi Vilas Bus Service. The building part of which collapsed was constructed in 1952.
The state government took over the bus service in 1972 as part of the nationalisation and the buildings constructed by the private operator here were used for TNSTC depot.