GREATER NOIDA: The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority demolished four more unauthorised under-construction buildings in Shahberi on Thursday. Officials said the owners of these buildings are either absconding or have gone underground, and had purchased the plots from farmers by flouting rules of urban land planning.
“We had started the
demolition drive on four unauthorised under-construction buildings in Shahberi on Wednesday, which continued on Thursday as the buildings couldn’t be fully demolished in one day. These buildings include a structure with a basement and two floors, a four-storey building, a five-storey building and another with three floors,” said GNIDA executive engineer DL Verma.
Officials said while Wednesday’s drive was carried out in the presence of nearly 70 police personnel, on Thursday some 20 cops were present. “All buildings were under construction and no one was living in them. We had issued notices of sealing to the owners about a month ago, but there was no response as the owners and brokers are all underground and absconding. None were present on Thursday,” said AK Arora, deputy general manager (projects), GNIDA.
Arora added that the order to demolish the buildings was issued on September 20 but GNIDA had to wait till Wednesday and Thursday as the requisite police force was not available for the job.
The demolition comes two months after the twin building collapse in Shahberi, where nine lives were lost and many were injured. Following the Shahberi building collapse, GNIDA had sealed around 30 buildings which were found to be illegal and unsafe. The owners of the sealed buildings were flouting building by-laws such as no objection certificate and fire safety clearance from the authorities concerned, officials said.
Meanwhile, the Noida Authority on Thursday also conducted a demolition drive amid police presence on a half-acre
green belt in front of Manas International Public School in Sector 34. The green belt had been illegally occupied by cattle grazers and shanties.
The drive comes following a high court order. “This is a large area of about half an acre, which had been encroached by a small slum and cattle were also being reared here. We took action on Thursday following an order by the
Allahabad high court against the encroachment,” said SP Singh, senior manager, work circle-5, Noida Authority.
