Ninth Chintels Paradiso tower declared ‘unsafe’, Gurgaon builder seeks evacuation of entire society for demolition

Since February 2022, when the sixth floor of Tower D of the society came crashing down to the first floor, killing two women, several towers have been declared unsafe one after the other.

Residents, meanwhile, remain in uncertainty. “We have been watching this for 2.5 years, without compensation or rehabilitation,” said a former resident on condition of anonymity.

In an email to the Deputy Commissioner, Chintels India Private Limited said eight towers had already been declared unsafe. “… the last remaining tower i.e Tower B has now also been declared unsafe by CSIR-CBRI. The administration had earlier applied the National Disaster Act to six towers — D, E, F, G, H and J — and ordered their demolition. The DC also ordered an evaluation of the current market value of all flats… to determine a fair compensation amount for each flat. We request you to pass a similar order in the case of Towers A, B and C so we can demolish them at the earliest and compensate flat owners. We assure you of our fullest cooperation to vacate the towers and hereby agree to pay one-time shifting charges of Rs 40,000 to all flat owners living in A, B and C,” the email said.

There are a total of 192 flats across these three towers and 160 families are yet to be evacuated.

The builder has so far offered two options to flat owners: The first is reconstruction, wherein residents pay Rs 1,000 per sqft to have their flats reconstructed after demolition, which is yet to take off. The second option is a settlement, as part of which the builder will pay Rs 6,500 per sqft to buyers, reimburse the actual stamp duty paid by flat owners, and reimburse the renovation cost as evaluated by independent evaluators appointed by the government.

In June, a committee chaired by the Divisional Commissioner gave a timeline to be adhered to by the builder to obtain relevant permission in six months for the demolition, and added that it should not take more than eight months.

RWA officeholders have now said they hoped to meet the administration to expedite the reconstruction process. Rakesh Hooda, RWA president and Tower A resident, said, “We aren’t scared of living in the flat. We are anxious about when we will have to leave and how long we have to wait before a flat is handed over. Many residents have been waiting for over 34 months.”

“The demolition is yet to take off. Only cosmetic demolition is happening, to show people that the process is ongoing. But we are clueless when the reconstruction will start,” another resident added.

Asked about the CRRI report, a spokesperson of Bhayana Builders, the project contractor, said, “All material used by us was after proper testing by Chintels and PMC. Test reports issued by certified laboratories during the period of construction have consistently found the quality of construction to be as per IS codes. Pertinently, we were involved only in 50% of the construction of the subject Tower and were out of the building in 2015. Thereafter, further construction/repair was undertaken without our knowledge…”