More than 100 rescuers carefully dug for survivors under a collapsed 11-story building in southern India on Monday, with hopes buoyed after six people were found alive two days after the tragedy.

The collapse Saturday killed at least 19 people and left an enormous pile of broken slabs, twisted iron girders and concrete dust where the apartment building, still under construction, had stood in a suburb of Chennai, the south-coast capital of Tamil Nadu state.

Nearly 90 contract workers, most from neighboring Andhra Pradesh state, were believed to have been in the basement collecting wages.

Rescuers have pulled at least 41 people from the wreckage, even as seasonal monsoon rains impeded the search. Police said 30 other people are likely still trapped.

Three backhoes were working to clear the area, but rescuers were having to work slowly and carefully to avoid upsetting the debris, which could settle further and crush anyone trapped below.

Instead, rescuers were listening for sounds from within the wreckage to help guide their search.

"We heard voices coming from the debris" on Sunday, said S.P. Selvan of the National Disaster Response Force. "Following the voice ... one lady was retrieved alive."

Indian TV news stations broadcast images of rescuers wearing hard hats and masks hoisting a rescued man on a stretcher and carried him down the mountain of debris to an ambulance.

Police have arrested six construction company officials for alleged criminal negligence and violation of building codes.

The governments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh together offered 700,000 rupees ($11,600) to the families of each person killed.

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Rescuers Dig for Survivors in India Building Ruins

NEW DELHI: Rescuers on Monday plucked two survivors from the ruins of a southern Indian apartment block that collapsed at the weekend, as they raced against the clock to find dozens more feared trapped in the rubble.

The confirmed death toll from Saturday's disaster on the outskirts of Chennai rose to 20 as authorities blamed shoddy construction for what was the second deadly building collapse in India within a matter of hours.

Karuna Sagar, a senior officer with the Tamil Nadu state police force, said that six people were arrested in the case on account of negligence, including the builder and his son, the architect of the residential tower and three others overseeing the building construction.

"Forty-three bodies were retrieved, of them 20 were dead and 23 were alive," Sagar told AFP in a phone interview on Monday.

"About 30 may be trapped (under the debris), but the exact number is not known yet," he added, speaking in English.

Reports said that two people rescued on Monday morning included a 35-year-old female construction worker who was one of several dozen entombed by a mass of concrete on Saturday night.

The woman had suffered a head injury, a hospital spokesman told the Press Trust of India news agency. A male co-worker was also being treated in hospital.

Emergency teams used mechanical diggers and heavy-cutting equipment to try and find more survivors in the ruins of what was a partially-built 11-storey complex.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said more than 400 rescuers were taking part in the search and were "leaving no stone unturned to save lives of the victims... by making best use of the latest sophisticated equipment".

- Collapsed like "stack of cards" -

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Survivors pulled from rubble of India building tragedy

The five-story Proctor Station development will soon begin to rise in Tacoma's Proctor Business District. The project will include 154 apartments and several ground-floor retail spaces. RUSHCOMPANIESBCRA

Proctor Station, a five-story, 154-unit apartment and retail building once criticized by neighbors as too large for the Proctor Business District, will soon begin construction.

Demolition is nearly complete on the site, said Devin Page, Rush Companies vice president of construction. Rush is the buildings principal developer. Excavation of the site will begin the week after Independence Day, he said.

The $20 million development, the largest in the history of Gig Harbors Rush, is due to be completed in late 2015. The building will include studio, one and two bedroom units built over a two-level garage. Ground-floor spaces will be available for retailers to lease.

The building site, adjacent to Mason Middle School, had been occupied by a small strip mall and three houses. The developers allowed the Tacoma Fire Department to conduct fire training exercises in the vacant buildings before demolition was completed.

The plans for Proctor Station encountered opposition from some neighboring homeowners when Rush sought to vacate an alley that bisected the property. Those neighbors complained the building at five stories was too large for the neighborhood business district where existing structures are a maximum of two stories.

A hearings examiner ruled the plans were in compliance with Tacomas zoning codes provided the developers built the structure in a way that would allow fire and garbage trucks access to the back side of the building through a ground-level corridor. The Proctor Business District is one of several neighborhood business districts within the city that the City Council had previously approved rules allowing higher and denser development.

Former City Councilman Bill Evans, a Proctor businessman and one of the co-developers of the project, contended the additional population that the building will bring to the business district merchants more traffic from new residents who live within walking distance of the district shops.

Some nearby residents also complained that the building would increase traffic congestion in the neighborhood and create parking problems in the business district. The developers countered that the building would include parking for residents plus creating more street parking for merchants.

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Construction on a five-story, 154-unit apartment in ...

NEW DELHI: A dilapidated apartment block collapsed in New Delhi on Saturday, killing at least ten people including five children in the country's latest building disaster, reports said citing police officials.

Rescuers scrambled to find survivors after the four-storey residential building crumbled, with scores of people feared trapped under the debris.

"Ten people including five children and three women have been killed in the building collapse while two persons have been injured," Delhi police commissioner Madhur Verma told the Press Trust of India (PTI).

"Rescue operations are still on and debris is being removed," he added.

The decades-old dilapidated building in a congested north Delhi neighbourhood started crumbling on Saturday morning.

"This is a 40-year-old building. They have illegally built floor after floor," Rajesh Bhatia, a senior municipal official told NDTV news channel.

The injured have been rushed to hospital while the government has ordered an inquiry into the the cause of the accident, PTI reported.

Building collapses are common in India, as lax regulations and the demand for cheap housing often spurs construction that uses substandard materials and adds unauthorised extra floors.

Earlier this year, more than 15 people died in the western state of Goa when a residential building collapsed.

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Building collapses in Delhi, killing 10

June 28, 2014: Rescue workers clear debris at the site of a building collapse in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

NEW DELHI Rescuers using gas cutters and shovels were searching in construction rubble Sunday for more than a dozen workers feared trapped in the second of two building collapses in India that together have killed at least 19 people.

The 12-story apartment structure the workers were building collapsed late Saturday while heavy rains and lightning were pounding the outskirts of Chennai, the capital of southern Tamil Nadu state. Police said 26 construction workers had been pulled out so far and the search was continuing for more than a dozen others.

Four of the workers died on the spot and another four succumbed to injuries later in a hospital, said police officer George Fernandes.

Twelve injured workers have been hospitalized, while six others were allowed to go home after medical attention on Saturday night, Fernandes said.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the collapse.

Nearly 300 policemen and fire service workers worked overnight, looking for survivors in the debris. They used gas cutters, iron rods and shovels to reach those trapped in the rubble.

Earlier Saturday, a four-story, 50-year-old structure toppled in an area of New Delhi inhabited by the poor. Eleven people died and one survivor was being treated in a hospital, said fire service officer Praveer Haldiar.

Most homes in that part of the capital were built without permission and using substandard materials, police officer Madhur Verma said.

The Press Trust of India news agency said the New Delhi collapse was triggered by construction work on an adjacent plot.

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India building collapses kill at least 19 people

Rescue workers carry the body of an injured man at the site of a collapsed 11-storey building that was under construction on the outskirts of the southern Indian city of Chennai. Photo by Reuters

Ten people including five children were killed in New Delhi after a 50-year-old apartment block with 14 occupants collapsed early on Saturday, a police spokesman said.

"Building collapse in Delhi brings forth need to adhere to safety requirements," tweeted Vijay Goel, a lawmaker from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party that controls the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Numerous building accidents in India's large cities have killed about 100 people in the past year, according to local media reports. More than 50 people were killed when an apartment block collapsed in Mumbai last September.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma told reporters an investigation into the cause of Saturday's building collapse in New Delhi had been launched.

Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called the incident a "nexus between the builder mafia and the municipal corporation". The corporation did not a answer phone call requesting comment.

Later on Saturday, an 11-storey building under construction in southern Tamil Nadu state came down, killing one worker, said K. Shanmugasundaram, a spokesman for the state police.

"Some 10 workers are in hospital and one of them is in the intensive care unit," he told Reuters. "Many more are still feared trapped."

Local media reports said more than fifty people were feared trapped in the debris of the block.

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Building collapses kill 11 in India

The five-story Proctor Station development will soon begin to rise in Tacoma's Proctor Business District. The project will include 154 apartments and several ground-floor retail spaces. RUSHCOMPANIESBCRA

Proctor Station, a five-story, 154-unit apartment and retail building once criticized by neighbors as too large for the Proctor Business District, will soon begin construction.

Demolition is nearly complete on the site, said Devin Page, Rush Companies vice president of construction. Rush is the buildings principal developer. Excavation of the site will begin the week after Independence Day, he said.

The $20 million development, the largest in the history of Gig Harbors Rush, is due to be completed in late 2015. The building will include studio, one and two bedroom units built over a two-level garage. Ground-floor spaces will be available for retailers to lease.

The building site, adjacent to Mason Middle School, had been occupied by a small strip mall and three houses. The developers allowed the Tacoma Fire Department to conduct fire training exercises in the vacant buildings before demolition was completed.

The plans for Proctor Station encountered opposition from some neighboring homeowners when Rush sought to vacate an alley that bisected the property. Those neighbors complained the building at five stories was too large for the neighborhood business district where existing structures are a maximum of two stories.

A hearings examiner ruled the plans were in compliance with Tacomas zoning codes provided the developers built the structure in a way that would allow fire and garbage trucks access to the back side of the building through a ground-level corridor. The Proctor Business District is one of several neighborhood business districts within the city that the City Council had previously approved rules allowing higher and denser development.

Former City Councilman Bill Evans, a Proctor businessman and one of the co-developers of the project, contended the additional population that the building will bring to the business district merchants more traffic from new residents who live within walking distance of the district shops.

Some nearby residents also complained that the building would increase traffic congestion in the neighborhood and create parking problems in the business district. The developers countered that the building would include parking for residents plus creating more street parking for merchants.

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Construction on a five-story, 154-unit apartment in Proctor Business District beginning soon

Melbourne to get 100-level apartment tower

A 100-level apartment tower is set to be built in Melbourne, giving the city the tallest building to the roofline in the southern hemisphere.

The tower, Australia 108, is one of three new skyscrapers to get state government approval for central Melbourne.

At a height of 319m above the ground, it will surpass Melbourne's Eureka tower by 22 metres.

"It'll be a large addition to Melbourne's skyline," Planning Minister Matthew Guy told reporters on Thursday.

He said it would also surpass the Q1 Gold Coast tower, whose spire reaches 323 metres.

"The top of Q1 is about 275m, so it is by far and away the tallest building to the roofline anywhere in Australia."

Another 75-storey apartment tower has been approved at 452 Elizabeth Street, along with a 54-storey building at 90 Queensbridge Street, Southbank.

Mr Guy says the new skyscrapers, involving investment of more than $830 million, will house 4000 people and generate 5800 construction jobs.

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Melbourne to get 100-level apartment tower

The downtown Los Angeles building boom is spreading outward.

Construction has begun on a 648-unit apartment complex just west of the financial district, in yet another example of downtown's resurgence expanding beyond the neighborhood's traditional boundaries.

When finished, two large apartment buildings will rise along 6th Street between Lucas Avenue and Bixel Street, with retail stores on the ground floor. The developer, Holland Partner Group, also is renovating an adjacent 1920s medical office building into apartments. Altogether, the project is expected to cost more than $200 million.

"We couldn't be more excited about what is happening in downtown Los Angeles," said Thomas D. Warren, who oversees Holland's Southern California operations.

The Vancouver, Wash., firm is looking to attract workers yearning for a slightly quieter home than those in downtown but who still want to live "very close to all the action," Warren said. The apartment complex across from Good Samaritan Hospital is less than a mile from downtown, across the 110 Freeway.

Projected rents range from $1,500 for a small studio to $3,750 for larger three-bedroom units, Warren said.

Seeking to capitalize on the real estate recovery, developers are looking for sites close to job centers and entertainment, while also factoring in price, said Richard Green, director of USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate.

"The land is a little less expensive as you get away from downtown," he said. "You can offer rents that are a little lower and justify the construction costs."

So more development is coming just outside downtown's traditional borders. A $1-billion residential, hotel and retail complex is planned along Broadway just south of the 10 Freeway near a Blue Line rail stop.

And more is slated beyond downtown's western boundaries. A developer plans a $60-million apartment and retail complex at Wilshire Boulevard and Valencia Street, several blocks west of Holland's project.

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Downtown L.A. building boom stretching west of financial district

Published Monday, 23 June 2014

Part of Dublin Rd is getting a facelift with the creation of apartments. (Richland Group)

Regent's Gate will be created by property developers The Richland Group and changed into 58 stylish one and two bedroom apartments, and two cafs on the ground floor.

Construction of the new development is expected to begin in January 2015 and finish in the summer of 2016.

It is estimated that the project will provide up to 200 construction jobs. When the complex is up and running, a further 20 long term commercial jobs will be created.

A free bicycle or one year travel pass will come with each apartment, and in the basement of the apartment block, there is a special storage area for bicycles.

According to an independent report carried out by Cogent Management Consulting, the Regent's Gate project will initially inject over 4.4m into the economy via the construction phase with a further 266,000 per annum from the commercial activities.

Richland Group Chief Executive Gary McCausland said that the project represents a significant step forward in the continuing regeneration of Belfast city centre.

"The Dublin Road scheme is a ground-breaking project for Belfast, based on a Tokyo / London concept that provides high quality, affordable, contemporary accommodation in strong and up and coming locations.

"As one of the first major privately funded construction projects in the city since the recession, it signals that Belfast is once again open for business and will see the regeneration of a rundown part of the Dublin Road with an iconic building providing quality accommodation and commercial space for people to live in, work in and enjoy.

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Apartment block gives city jobs boost