Rebuild or buyback: Chintels asks Phase 2 tower owners if they want either option

In January 2024, a committee report by the district administration and other officials concerned on findings of the IIT-Delhi report declared tower J “unsafe”. The Deputy Commissioner, however, has not issued any evacuation order under the DMA yet.

“We have received requests from several flat owners of Phase I and II to consider the reconstruction of the entire project, all the nine towers, since that will decisively produce a much better overall project. This may well be true. Although considering the current IIT reports, Chintels is under no obligation to either reconstruct the four towers or to offer any buy-back option, but we have still decided to get feedback from all the Phase II flat owners to ascertain how many people are interested in either of the two options given to flat owners of Phase I towers,” read the email.

The flat owners were also asked to provide information on the same as the developer needs to immediately take steps to demolish the five towers of Phase I and start the process of obtaining the necessary approvals for rebuilding them. “We request you to kindly inform all the flat owners of Phase II that we could consider making the same offer as given to Phase I flat owners. However, this offer will depend on the response from the majority of the Phase II flat owners,” said the email.
A Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) team has been inspecting the four Phase II towers to “ascertain their structural condition” and “find methods for repairing and retrofitting” them.

In February 2022, a portion of a six-storey apartment in Tower D of Phase I had collapsed on the first floor, killing two women and injuring another. The incident prompted a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation and a structural audit of the nine-tower housing complex. Five towers were vacated, following an order, as they were declared “unfit for habitation due to structural deficiencies”, while Phase II’s towers A, B, and C were said to be “safe temporarily”, but required a timely audit to check depreciation.

Following the IIT Delhi report of the structural audit of Phase II’s Tower J at Chintels Paradiso Residential Society in Sector 109, the committee report declared the tower “unsafe and unfit for habitation”. This is the sixth tower to be declared “unsafe” in the nine-tower housing complex.