Really! 3-storey house in Bhubaneswar lifted 3 feet from ground using jacks

Bhubaneswar: In what could come as a surprise for many, a 3-storey building standing on plot number 830 at Jaydev Vihar of Bhubaneswar has been lifted 3 feet from the ground using screw jacks for carrying out repairs to raise the elevation.

And the best part about this project is that no demolition has been done.

While the total cost of the project is estimated to be around Rs 15 lakh, as many as 250 jacks worth 150 tonne capacity have been fixed at the base of the house, informed sources.

According to sources, a team of 20 workers from Bihar are currently working on the project which is expected to get completed in 3 months.

"We are working for last 4 years and have lifted over 400 houses. We never faced any problem even while lifting 4 to 5-storey buildings by 4 to 10 feet," contractor, Bablu Yadav said.

The owners of the said building decided to lift the house after the elevation of the road in front increased leading to flooding problems in the ground floor. The ground floor of the 15-year-old house was 2.5 feet below the road level.

"Everyone suggested us to demolish and build a new house anticipating that the lifting procedure could possibly damage the building. But nothing like that happened. The building has already been lifted 3 feet from the ground without any problem. It will be lifted 1 feet more and finally it will be 2 feet above the road. I am happy with my decision," said owner of the building, Basant Mishra.

"When I visited Canada I had seen that houses were being lifted and moved; so I thought why we can't implement such technology in Odisha. Subsequently, our team took the risk of implementing that technology," said Civil engineer, Sudipta Kumar Das.

According to sources, while this could be the first such project in Odisha, this method is used extensively in Russia and Canada. In India, this method was first used a few years back in Mumbai.