Although the building that collapsed on Saturday had proper approval Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had said, "It appears the building did not adhere to the approved plan and it suffered from structural defects"
After an examination, an expert team from the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association (CREDAI) says there were major flaws in the 11-floor under-construction building that collapsed on Saturday, killing more than 60 people.
In fact, they call it a structural engineering disaster. The key failures they say are use of weak load-bearing beams and columns, and use of sub-standard construction material, all of which they say compromised on safety.
The team included experts from IIT Madras and present and former professors from the Anna University as well.
Dr R Kumar, Chairman of the CREDAI in Chennai told NDTV, "It's a pancake collapse, When the slabs fall one over another. The columns have fallen flat. They have failed in both the regions - the top and bottom - which means it's a complete structural failure."
The formal report would be released in a few days and circulated among all members to learn lessons from this tragedy.
The collapsed building is just around 500 metres away from the Porur lake outside Chennai. Investigators are also looking for irregularities in the project's soil testing, whether the soil in the area is strong enough to bear this kind of load.
Till a few decades ago this site used to be part of a huge wetland, a catchment area for the Porur Lake.
The police suspect the soil condition wasn't favorable for a high rise. Karuna Sagar, Additional Commissioner of Police, told NDTV, "We are probing everything. The design, construction and materials used."
While six people including the promoters are behind bars for criminal negligence, the builders deny all charges. They claim the building collapsed because it was struck by lightning.
Now Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has ordered a probe. But is it too little too late and a poor consolation for the bereaved familes?