Flat values raised in second government assessment of Chintels Paradiso tower-D
GURUGRAM: After a re-assessment by the government, the value of flats in the doomed Tower D of Chintels Paradiso housing society has gone up by nearly 16%.
In the re-valuation, which was taken up after the affected residents rejected the earlier assessment, the government has included stamp duty, external and internal development charges (EDC/IDC) and other expenses. For an 1,850-sqft flat, the cost in the first valuation was around Rs 98 lakh. After re-valuation, that has increased to Rs 1.13 crore.
Additional deputy commissioner Vishram Meena told TOI the report has been submitted to his office, which will be shared and discussed with the society’s RWA and the owners of the 64 flats in the tower this week. “Now, we have included stamp duty of 7% and other charges in the re-valuation, thus increasing the all-inclusive flat cost by nearly 16%.”
The re-valuation will form the basis of compensation to the flat owners of the tower, which was evacuated last February after a vertical collapse of five living room floors killed two residents. The Gurugram administration subsequently ordered the tower to be demolished after an inquiry found it to be beyond repairs.
On November 11 last year, the flat owners rejected the initial valuation report claiming that the compensation plan for vacating the flats was merely based on registry, and other costs such as stamp duty, IDC and electricity charges were not included. That prompted deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav to order a re-valuation of the flats.
Meanwhile, TOI has learnt that interior valuation of some flats is still going on as seven apartment owners weren’t available at the time of the re-assessment while one had refused to let the valuers carry out the act. As per the latest report, the highest valuation of interior works in one of the flats is around Rs 33 lakh.
“In the next week’s meeting, the issue of structural audit of towers E and F will also be discussed. Efforts are on to get the audit reports of these two towers at the earliest so that the future course of action can be decided,” an official said.
It may be mentioned here that the deputy commissioner has already ordered the demolition of Tower D and directed the developer to finalise the settlement plan for homeowners at the earliest.
On February 10, a portion of a sixth-floor apartment in Tower D of the society collapsed onto the other floors, killing two residents in their second- and first-floor flats. Later the residents of two more towers in the society – E and F – were also asked to vacate as one of the balconies was found to be sagging.
And on December 21, Gurugram police made the first arrest in connection with the incident. Amit Austin, the owner of Manish Switchgear and Construction, the firm that was carrying out the repairs at D-603 (a flat in Tower D), was taken into custody.
The arrest was carried out after a probe report by IIT-Delhi revealed that wrong methodology and lack of monitoring during the repair work in the flat (D-603) led to the immediate collapse. The root cause was, however, rapid and early corrosion of the steel reinforcement due to excessive chloride in the concrete, the final report claimed.