Gurugram admin orders audit of ‘unsafe’ buildings

Gurugram: The Gurugram administration has ordered a structural audit of buildings in 23 housing societies here after visual inspections showed that they could be unsafe.

Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said after the accident at Chintels Paradiso society last year, the district administration is identifying unsafe buildings to complete their structural audit. On the basis of the audit report, repairs will be carried out and if a building is not repairable, it will be vacated, he said.

Two women were killed after the dining room floor of a sixth-floor apartment of Tower D at Chintels Paradiso in Sector 109 came down on February 10, 2022, triggering the collapse of roofs and floors directly under it, till the first floor. After a visual inspection of 55 housing societies, it was decided that a structural audit of buildings in 23 societies would be undertaken in the first phase, Yadav said.

The inspection included various checkpoints such as overall maintenance, plastering, leakage, seepage, dampness and cracks in the basement, beam, slab and floor dampness, and condition of water tanks and shafts built on the roof of the building, the official said. During the inspection, it was found that buildings in 23 housing societies were not safe, he added.

In February this year, the Gurugram administration declared Towers D, E and F of Chintels Paradiso unsafe on the basis of a structural audit report of the IIT Delhi. Last month, Tower F was cordoned off after a balcony of a flat was found to be “sagging”.