Gurugram: Chintels Paradiso residents demand tower D be razed and rebuild

November 12, 2022
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GURUGRRAM: Homebuyers of the doomed tower D of Chintels Paradiso, where the living rooms of five flats collapsed vertically this February, claiming two lives, have rejected the administration’s evaluation report for compensation.

They have instead demanded that the tower should be rebuilt and their apartments restored to them. The 18-storey Tower D, which was evacuated after the February incident, will be demolished. The order to bring it down was passed by the deputy commissioner earlier this week, citing an IIT-Delhi structural audit commissioned by the government that found the building to be beyond repair.

At a meeting on Friday, flat owners told deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav that the developer should provide accommodation and bear the costs until Tower D is demolished and a new building is erected in its place.

They also told the DC that the evaluation report by the district administration — which has estimated the cost of 64 flats in tower D between Rs 93 lakh and Rs 1.7 crore each — was completely off the mark. The compensation plan for vacating the flats is merely based on registry, and other costs such as stamp duty, infrastructure development charge (IDC) and electricity charges have not been included, they alleged.

“First, we have demanded that the building should be demolished and the flats should be reconstructed at the same site as assured by the developer in February. Second, we rejected the evaluation report, which should be reassessed since the methodology used by the agency is not correct,” said Rakesh Hooda, president, Chintels Paradiso RWA.

Another resident asserted that he won’t accept anything lower than the market value.

“The amount offered to us is less than what we had paid 8 years back when we had bought the flat. Currently, a 3BHK flat of the size that I had bought here costs around Rs 2.25-2.5 crore in this area of the city. The administration and the developer should revisit the option of reconstruction of the building at the same site with proper standards and provide temporary accommodation till we get our flat. If not, they should provide fair compensation based on the current market value. This is only fair as we have been cheated,” said Vikram Gambhir, who had bought his apartment in 2014.

Yadav said the administration will take into account the residents’ concerns.

“As per the suggestions of the residents, the evaluation report will be re-examined after adjusting the overhead expenses such as stamp duty, EDC-IDC, expenditure on electricity arrangements, etc,” the DC said.

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.

This week, residents of two more towers at the society — E and F — were also asked to vacate as one of the balconies was found to be sagging and there was floor distress.

The DC said on Friday that the developer has been asked to start the process of demolition of Tower D and finalise the settlement plan for homeowners. The builder has a deadline of 60 days — by mid-January — to reach an agreement unless the flat owners seek an extension.

“If there is no agreement on compensation between the builder and the flat owners, then the base value of compensation will be fixed as per the report of the evaluator. Till the time, the issue of compensation is not settled, the flat owners are entitled to collect rent,” Yadav said at the meeting.

A spokesperson for Chintels India said the company was “cooperating with the government authorities and affected residents”.

On the rehabilitation plan for towers E and F, which have 116 flats, the DC iterated that the district town planner had issued the orders to vacate the houses on Thursday.

“The developer should shift the residents living in these towers to a project developed by it or elsewhere without any cost and make a rent agreement with them. Both flat owners and tenants living in these flats will have to be included in the rehabilitation plan,” he added.

Around 42 families living in these two towers had earlier refused to vacate their flats until a clear roadmap for rehabilitation was given to them.

Sushil Kumar Rohilla, who lives in tower F, said, “We understand we have to vacate the flat but we have urged the administration to give us some time as the structural audit report (by IIT-Delhi) is likely to come by the end of this month… Moreover, we still have to get a rent agreement from the developer.”

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