Chandigarh, Jan 6 : A five-decade-old commercial building near the Deputy Commissioner's office in Chandigarh's Sector 17, which had been declared unsafe earlier, collapsed on Monday morning.

However, there was no causality in the building collapse located in the heart of the city.

Eyewitnesses said the building collapsed at around 7 a.m. The adjoining building, which was once running the famed Mehfil restaurant, has also developed cracks and is partially damaged by the caving-in of the building.

Police and fire brigade teams have arrived at the spot.

The local administration had earlier declared the building unsafe and sealed it.

It is learnt that some construction was going on in the building before it was declared unsafe owing to cracks in its pillars and walls. The police had barricaded the area as a preventive step to prevent any mishap.

Police said the building was rented out and the tenants were carrying out a major renovation work.

Chandigarh's Sector 17 shopping plaza is the walkers' paradise designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. At present, it has virtually been lost after shedding its old-world charm.

The shopping marketplace, the pedestrian's paradise that Corbusier designed on the European pattern has been witnessing business nosediving since the early 2010s.

Shopkeepers say they lost customers to the air-conditioned Elante Mall and North Country Mall where people love to hang around for hours with a flurry of shopping activities, besides restaurants and bars with a host of entertainment options.

A large number of multinational brand outlets have shifted base to the vibrant shopping hubs, another reason for a limited clientele in Sector 17's marketplace.

The closure of Lyon's Restaurant with its prime location in Sector 17 is a great miss among the old-timers. They say they have fond memories of yesteryears. While others have been using the eatery as a landmark location for route direction. Upscale bars and microbreweries elsewhere have left high and dry the Gymkhana Pub in Sector 17, one of the most affordable bars in the city.

The prominent outlets that downed shutters with the winds of change include Kwality restaurant, Blue Ice, Indian Coffee House, Shangrila, Oven Fresh, Anchor Pub, Bhatura King, Deepak Radios and law bookseller Jain General House and Jain Jewellers.

/IANS