A study by Jamia Millia Islamia’s department of civil engineering has declared all 2,292 flats at Tulsi Niketan unsafe for living and have suggested their reconstruction. The Ghaziabad Development Authority(GDA) had assigned the study to the university last December.

The Tulsi Niketan locality near Delhi-Ghaziabad border was developed in 1988. Last year, all the flats were declared unsafe by GDA. Since then, plans for redevelopment were floated but the move was opposed by occupants who were reportedly not ready to vacate their flats. GDA had proposed handing over the flats to the occupants after reconstruction.

“Thereafter, we decided to rope in an expert agency who could tell us the state of the flats. The report by the university has said none of the flats is safe and all of them should be reconstructed. They conducted a series of tests and also assessed structural strength of the flats,” said SK Sinha, executive engineer (GDA).

The varsity’’s team submitted the findings in a 2,000-page report. “The report by the university’s civil engineering department also said the cost of retrofitting or repair would be much higher than the cost of reconstruction. The report is now with us and details the condition of flats. The proposal for reconstruction will now be taken before the GDA board in its upcoming meeting,” he added.

The GDA plans to take up phase-wise reconstruction of residential blocks at Tulsi Niketan to reduce the cost of displacement. The authority also plans to construct more units in residential towers to be sold to recover the cost of reconstruction

The GDA has also ordered a survey to find out the status of present occupancy and outline if residents were residing on registries, the powers of attorney or without any valid document.

Residents had demanded they should be allowed to get registries based on the powers of attorney since the same are banned at present. Since such registries are banned at present, the authority has already written to the state government to accommodate their requests.

First Published: Feb 26, 2019 04:07 IST