MUMBAI, Nov. 17 -- The BMC has halted redevelopment work at Byculla's Habib Mansion after unauthorised deep excavation and backfilling led to the death of two labourers and injured three others. A stop-work notice was issued late on Saturday evening. A 24-hour intimation has also been issued to the developer Ibrahim Jusab Sopariwala and others, ordering them to produce the requisite permission granted for the construction, failing which the building will be demolished by the BMC. The accident took place when the workers, using jackhammers in a 15-foot-deep pit, were buried by a wall of loose mud and stones that suddenly came crashing down on them. Civic officials said the work was carried out without basic safety measures and in violation of several conditions listed in the Intimation of Disapproval (IOD) issued in 2023 for the project. The authorities said that the developer also failed to alert the fire brigade after the incident, despite the requirement that any such collapse had to be immediately reported. Instead, the injured workers were taken directly to Nair Hospital by the developer's team. Officials described this as a serious breach of protocol and an attempt to bypass emergency response procedures designed to prevent further harm. Rohit Trivedi, assistant commissioner of E ward, said that the ward office issued the stop-work notice after learning of the accident through the police and hospital authorities. "We issued the notice to the developer last evening due to the safety lapse," he told HT. "We have asked the building proposals department to submit a report." Trivedi added that the builder's team should have immediately called the fire brigade. "However, they did not do this and evacuated the site themselves and sent the injured to Nair Hospital," he said. "Our notice states that they carried out deep excavation without safety measures. They should have provided support, strengthened the walls and only then allowed workers to operate there." The plot had been excavated for the piling work being done for the building's foundation. After the soil buried the labourers, their co-workers rushed to rescue them but it took around 30 minutes to pull them out, according to workers at the site. By then, two labourers-Rahul, 30, and Raju, 28-had died, while three others were rescued but with serious leg injuries. The Byculla police have recorded the incident as an accidental death report. The stop-work notice issued on Saturday was signed by the designated officer authorised under Section 351(1) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888. It states that the developer had unlawfully commenced or continued work in violation of Sections 337, 342 and 347 of the Act at the Habib Mansion site, located on CS No 1836 in Byculla's E ward. The notice cites unauthorised deep excavation and backfilling undertaken without safety precautions as activities that posed direct danger to human life. Using powers granted under Section 354A of the Act, the BMC has ordered an immediate halt to all construction and demanded that the developer submit approval documents from the competent authority within 24 hours. It has warned that failure to stop work or produce the required permissions will result in whatever work has been done so far being demolished at the developer's cost. The police have also been instructed to remove any personnel found continuing to work at the site....