The residents of the locality said that they had informed AMC authorities about the dilapidated condition of the water tank several times, but in vain.

The water tank, which was situated inside the limits of P & T Society in the area, collapsed at around 9.30 am, when a train crossed the railway station.

A major tragedy was averted, as there was very less water in the tank and nobody was standing beneath it when the incident took place.

A resident of the area said that the tank collapsed as soon as a local train crossed the railway station. "For the first few seconds, I thought that it fell down due to an earthquake," the resident said.

Rajni Chauhan, Secretary of the P & T Society, said: "Our society had provided the land to the then Vejalpur Gram Panchayat to build the water tank in 1987.

However, it has been lying in a dilapidated condition for the last several years. Realising the danger it carries, we had informed AMC authorities to do the needful. But no concrete steps were taken in this regard."

When asked about the complaints of the residents about the dilapidated condition of the water tank and the demand to remove it, Additional City Engineer, New Western Zone, Kaushik Parikh, said: "The condition of the water tank had gone from bad to worse after the 2001 earthquake and the constant leakage of water. We were in the process of discussing whether to repair the water tank or to simply remove it. But the incident happened before we could take any decision.

Parikh confessed that the matter was pending since the last one year. He also admitted that Tuesday's incident could have been fatal, had there been some people under the water tank.