Chandigarh, Jan 6 || A five-decade-old commercial building near the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Chandigarh's Sector 17, which had been declared unsafe earlier, collapsed on Monday morning.
However, there was no causality in the building collapse located in the heart of the city.
Eyewitnesses said the building collapsed at around 7 a.m. The adjoining building, which was once running the famed Mehfil restaurant, has also developed cracks and is partially damaged by the caving-in of the building.
Police and fire brigade teams have arrived at the spot.
The local administration had earlier declared the building unsafe and sealed it.
It is learnt that some construction was going on in the building before it was declared unsafe owing to cracks in its pillars and walls. The police had barricaded the area as a preventive step to prevent any mishap.
Police said the building was rented out and the tenants were carrying out a major renovation work.
Chandigarh’s Sector 17 shopping plaza is the walkers’ paradise designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. At present, it has virtually been lost after shedding its old-world charm.
The shopping marketplace, the pedestrian’s paradise that Corbusier designed on the European pattern has been witnessing business nosediving since the early 2010s.