KARACHI, June 20: The Karachi Building Control Authority has declared as many as 157 residential buildings in different parts of the city as ‘most dangerous’ and warned their thousands of occupants to move out before the start of monsoon rains.

A long-running dispute over provision of alternative housing facilities is said to be mainly responsible for the failure of the authorities to get extremely dilapidated structures vacated and demolished.

Most of the 157 buildings are located in Saddar Town alone whereas one of them, a hostel block of the Jamia Millia Government Degree College, Shah Faisal Town, is currently under the occupation of the Rangers.

The KBCA’s technical committee on dangerous buildings, which identified these highly risky residential units, has indicated that most of these crumbling buildings (129) are located in Saddar Town, 10 in Lyari Town, nine in Jamshed Town, six in Keamari Town, two in Malir Town and one in Shah Faisal Town. Almost all the buildings are occupied.

With the monsoon approaching fast, all the quarters concerned are worried about the serious threat to the occupants of these buildings who mostly are tenants and not financially strong enough to arrange an alternative residence for themselves. Sources in the KBCA have apprehended that there are some buildings among the ‘most dangerous’ ones that could collapse any moment, rains or no rains.

The KBCA and other relevant authorities have been holding out assurances that they will help resolve issues between owners and tenants of such buildings so that thousands of lives can be saved before it is too late. However, no measures have so far been taken to settle a dispute even in a single case.

Sources said that an estimated 3,000 people were living in these dangerous buildings, most of them multi-storeyed. A large number of the families have been occupying their respective residential units since Partition. Owners of the fast decaying buildings are eager to get them demolished and raise new structures of their choice on the site but the tenants demand an amount sufficient enough to have an alternative residential unit. Considering their demand unacceptable, some parties have opted for litigation. The cases are pending a decision for long.

The KBCA technical committee’s secretary, Nisar Ahmed, told Dawn that there would not be more than eight to 10 such buildings whose owners had moved courts.