On Feb 10, a portion of a sixth-floor flat collapsed at Chintels Paradiso. (Archive)Nearly nine months after a large portion of a sixth-floor apartment had collapsed all the way to the first floor at Gurgaon’s Chintels Paradiso, killing two women, the Gurgaon deputy commissioner Saturday said tower D in the society — where the collapse started — will be demolished. He said the action is based on a recommendation in a structural audit report by experts from IIT-Delhi, which found “structural deficiencies” in its probe and deemed the tower unsafe for habitation.
Addressing the media, Gurgaon DC Nishant Kumar Yadav said the IIT-Delhi report found that tower D, which has 17 floors and 54 flats, had poor construction quality. It also said repairs had not been carried out properly, due to which the slab of flat D-603 collapsed.
“As per the report, a major reason for the collapse is that maintenance and repair work (retrofitting) was not carried out properly and it was not monitored and unsupervised. The report’s findings are that the steel (bars) corroded reinforcements had been broken and painted from the top to hide corrosion, due to which the strength of slab was weak and it collapsed. The methodology of repair was also not as per the requisite standard,” he said.
He added that sampling of tower D found that it had high chloride content and the quality of concrete was poor, due to which it is not habitable. “The report stated that quality was so poor that it was not technically and economically feasible to repair it. Hence, the report has recommended that tower D should be permanently closed and the process to initiate its demolition should be started,” said Yadav.
The DC added that the report had also recommended that towers E and F, where some balconies had reported sagging and floors had distress, should also be immediately vacated for residents’ safety while the testing process of the two towers was going on. “The structural audit report of towers E and F is expected in a month. Depending on the nature of the deficiency in the report and whether they are structurally safe, a decision shall be taken,” he said.
Referring to the Supertech twin towers in Noida, which were demolished on directions of the Supreme Court for serious violations of the building control regulations, Yadav said they were consulting authorities in Noida regarding the processes followed and a plan of action will be put in place accordingly.
“Since the reports of towers E and F are awaited, it would be premature to talk of the demolition processes. No specific timeline has been fixed for now, but tentatively a two-three-month period will be set aside for the settlement process and then we will see,” he said.
Yadav said the findings of the report pointed out that the developer, Chintels India Private Limited and a firm which was carrying out the repairs, were liable for the lapses.
On whether action would be taken against them, the DC said, “Action will be taken. A criminal case was registered against the developer. Investigation is ongoing and contingent on a probe by a committee under the additional deputy commissioner, whose ambit is a little wider. That report is awaited. We have received IIT’s report. The committee’s report is likely to come on Sunday. We will send it to the police for further action and we will also attach this report in the affidavit in the Supreme Court, where the matter is listed.”
The DC, who is also the chairman of district disaster management authority, said a detailed order for demolition shall be passed by the authority Monday.
“The builder will be instructed to get the flats vacant… (the flats in tower D are already vacant) for the process. Directions will be given to the developer to settle claims of home allottees of the tower in a time-bound manner. Specific timelines shall be fixed to settle the claims. Either the allottees and developer can mutually settle claims — by either buying back the flats or providing a flat elsewhere — and (submit their) consent to us in writing that an agreement has been reached. If an agreement can’t be reached, we will ask the developer to settle claims at the current market value of the flats estimated by independent evaluators appointed by our committee. If the allottees do not agree, then the parties can approach court. We will have a meeting with both parties and give them these options,” he said.
In a statement, J N Yadav, spokesperson, Chintels India Private Limited, said, “Ever since the unfortunate incident took place, we have been cooperating with government authorities and the affected residents in every possible way and will continue to do so.”
Days after the incident which took place on February 10, the Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) had ordered a structural audit of the affected towers to detect defects in design or workmanship during construction.
In March, an interim report submitted by a team from IIT-Delhi to the committee probing the collapse had found that steel reinforcements in debris and remnants of the collapsed portion were significantly corroded, and there were rust marks on pieces of concrete in debris.
In the aftermath of the incident, the district administration had also empanelled four agencies for a structural audit of 16 societies in Gurgaon. “We had received complaints of poor construction quality from 70 societies. In the next 10 days, we will get a report… survey work has been completed to a large extent we will know by November 15 as to how many societies have structural safety issues or if they require further tests,” said Yadav.