Deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav on Friday ordered structural audits of 15 residential societies in the city to roll out the second phase of an exercise that was carried out after a vertical collapse of flats in Chintels Paradiso last year. The societies will be picked out of the 60 projects, whose residents and RWAs had complained about construction quality and structural defects over the past two years.
Most of these are along the Dwarka Expressway and the Southern Peripheral Road, including those built by prominent real estate firms.
“Keeping in view the gravity of the matter and in larger public interest, the district town planner has been asked to conduct a preliminary visual survey of all 60 societies to select the 15 most critical ones where structural audits should be done on priority,” Yadav said. The process will include on-site inspection of the buildings to check for any apparent defects, and signs of deterioration and damage to slabs, columns and beams.
The first phase of the audit – also involving 15 societies — was ordered in August 2022, months after a sixth-floor flat caved in, triggering a vertical collapse of floors up to the first floor of a tower at Chintels Paradiso in Sector 109 on February 10. Two women died in the cave-in that was later blamed on the building’s structural deficiencies. Four agencies — Bureau Vertias, TPC Technical projects Consultants, Vintech Consultants and NNC Design International — drafted by the district administration carried out the audits in September, and later submitted reports that pointed to several deficiencies. Key among those were seepage and flooding in the basements, steel corrosion and peeling of plaster. But the issues were “repairable”, the agencies concluded.
The first phase included societies such as Mapsko Casabella in Sector 82, Park Place in DLF-5, Paras Irene in Sector 70A, among others.
After selecting another batch of 15 societies, DTP Manish Yadav will write to the RWAs, asking them to get the audits done by the agencies empanelled by the district administration, or by a consultant of their choice.
The cost of the audits will have to be borne by the RWA/residents and the developer equally. If the RWA’s complaint about the deficiency is found to be accurate, the developer will have to pay the entire cost, the deputy commissioner said.
The audit process will be similar to the first phase.
The administration also wants to involve officials of the planning department and the PWD as the enforcement wing of the department of town and country planning (DTCP) is short staffed. Officials said this will ensure the exercise is completed in a fixed time frame.
