AHMEDABAD: Civic body of Gujarat has been instructed by CM Vijay Rupani on Saturday to conduct surveys of dilapidated houses in their respective cities, and have unsafe structures vacated immediately.
Many of the government’s own public housing, constructed with the then highly advertised Mascon construction system, have not been able to survive even nine years of wear and tear.
A visit to the ‘Navi Basti’, with its endless rows of EWS housing units along the Vatva Tube Road makes a stark point. Concrete has been spalling in large chunks from the facades and ceilings, thanks to leaky plumbing installed.
Some 5,800 families from across the city were relocated to this location after having been evicted from the riverfront, Kankaria lakefront and from along the BRTS corridor.
Raju Devipujak, a resident of Kushabhau Thakre Colony said that the residents were much safer in chawls than these houses. There is a constant fear whenever the children play near the building since it’s a everyday story when a piece of concrete is falling off the parapet or balconies or even within the house.
On certain terraces of the blocks at Vasant Gajendragadkar Nagar for instance, there is vegetation growing between the tiles.
Houses at Vasant Gajendragadkar Nagar’, the neighbouring Sadhbhavna Nagar and Khushabahu Thakre BSUP Colony and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee BSUP Colony are already crumbling.
At the Santoshnagar EWS housing colony in Behrampura, several families feel safer sleeping at relatives’ homes in the rainy season.
Ruksana Banu of Santoshnagar said that just a few months ago, the floor of the drawing room settled down in Block 39. She had to take her children and stay at the relatives place till the repair work was going on.
Source: ET Realty