Like Noida's Twin Towers, Gurgaon's Chintels Paradiso's Tower D to be demolished

Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav on Saturday gave an order to demolish Tower-D having 50 flats of Chintels Paradiso condominium in Sector 109 of Gurugram, after a report by IIT-Delhi found structural deficiencies in the building. On February 10, 2022, two persons lost their lives after a slab of sixth-floor apartment in Tower D collapsed partially during repair work. Following the incident, the state government formed a committee to probe the matter, and a structural audit of the building was also ordered.

A committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Vishram Kumar Meena who was probing the matter.

"The team from IIT-Delhi has found structural deficiencies in the construction of this tower, whose repair is not possible on technical and economic grounds, Therefore, this tower should be completely demolished," Yadav told reporters. "An attempt was made to cover up the structural deficiencies found in Tower-D by painting the rusted bars due to low-quality construction material and chlorine in the water," Yadav said.

Apart from this, he said, reports of structural safety complaints from 16 different housing societies in the district will also come by November 15, after which a decision will be taken about them."

"The investigation report of IIT-Delhi has come in which it has been found that there were structural defects in the D Tower of Chintels Paradiso. Low-level concrete was used in the construction of the building, which is not possible to be repaired on technical and economic grounds. The committee found that the steelwork and reinforcement work in the building had been painted to hide the rust," he stated.

"Along with this, the work of retrofitting a flat on the sixth floor of D-Tower was also not being done without monitoring and as per the prescribed norms. For this, the responsibility of Chintels Paradiso Company and Manish Switch Gear Pvt Ltd has been fixed," he added.

He also informed that the team of IIT-Delhi has also recommended that the process of demolition should be started by closing Tower-D.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner said that the detailed report of the Administrative Committee constituted under the chairmanship of ADC Meena is also expected to come by Monday. After that, the district administration will take further action in this matter.

He said that based on the investigation report of IIT-Delhi, orders will be given to the developer to settle the claim with the allottees of D-Tower. There will be three options before the allottees. The builder or the developer, in coordination with the allottees of D-Tower at their level, will settle the claim within the stipulated period and will give this information in writing to the district administration.

Under another option, for the convenience of the allottees, two independent evaluators would be engaged, who would assess the current prices of flats etc. and give their reports. Thereafter, it will be mandatory for the developer to accept the price decided by the evaluator and that amount will be given to the allottee. If the allottees are not satisfied even after this, then they can go to court and seek relief.

Similarly, the process of structural audit is going on in Tower `E` and `F` of the same society and its report will come soon. Till then, by vacating these two towers, the builder has to enter into a rent agreement with their flat owners.

Construction samples of both these towers have been collected. There are 28 flats in Tower E and 22 in Tower-F. The cost of shifting flat owners to rent to another location will be borne by the builder.

Apart from this, the Deputy Commissioner said that complaints were received from 70 different societies related to structural audit in the district, out of which 16 societies were selected for structural audit in the first phase. Apart from the agency, builder`s representatives and members of RWAs have also been included for structural audit, so that fair investigation can be done.

"The reports of these 16 societies will come by November 15. In these societies, the responsibility was entrusted to two agencies for structural audit, which will tell in their report whether this society is safe to live in or not," he said.