An eviction notice has recently been served to over 1000 traders of the Main Market building at Aizawl, the state capital of Mizoram, for the third time.
The first eviction notice was served to the traders in 2015 when an inspection was carried out by the Aizawl District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on June 8, 2015.
Following the inspection, the building was declared unsafe and it was said that the building needs to be dismantled.
As per reports of the Commerce & Industries director J. Hmingthanmawia and a technical report by Er Bowman, chief engineer, PWD (Buildings), the old building at the Aizawl New Market area was constructed based on a drawing by the Roorkee College of Engineering in 1987.
The structure, even after being declared unsafe in 2015, has been consistently taking the heavy load of more than 1000 traders and their commodities along with their customers on a daily basis till date.
According to the assessment by the experts, the strength of pillars, beams and the structure, in general, is now so weak that the heavy load of the slab, commodities and the people traversing on it are enough for the building to collapse in the near future, especially if an earthquake strikes.
The traders have been asked to evacuate the building within one month. The construction work is expected to take place as soon as the building is evacuated.
On Saturday morning, state commerce minister Dr. R. Lalthangliana accompanied by tourism minister Robert Romawia Royte and chief secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo inspected the site.
A joint consultation meeting was held with the trade associations at the Commerce and Industries department’s site office.
During his interaction with the representatives, commerce minister Lalthangliana addressed the grievances of the traders and assured that he would look into the traders’ main concern regarding the retention of seats.
While he apologetically explained to the gathering that it was a very hard decision on the part of the government to interrupt the livelihoods of almost 2,500 families, he said it was mandatory for the government to dismantle the building sooner than later to avoid major disaster.