Gurugram: DTCP officials orders barricading of unsafe Chintels Paradiso towers

GURUGRAM: A team of officials from the department of town and country planning (DTCP)
visited Chintels Paradiso in Sector 109 on Tuesday, four days after balconies came crashing down from
the fifth floor to the second in tower D of the residential society.
During the visit, officials from DTCP’s enforcement wing found that none of the towers declared unsafe
for habitation had been barricaded, after which the developer was directed to set them up. The builder will
be held responsible in case of any accident is caused by the lack of barricading, officials said.
The district town planner (enforcement) also requested the RWA to cooperate as some of its members were not allowing the barricading.

Tower D was abandoned in February last year after the living rooms of apartments on five floors caved in
one on top of the other, killing two residents. Over the next few months, four more towers were ordered to
be evacuated after an IIT-Delhi study found them unsafe for living and said high levels of chloride in concrete had led to corrosion. These towers are from D to H, which were home to more than 250 families. Deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav had said the other unsafe towers too are being vacated. “DTCP will get the area barricaded and the developer will be asked to carry out the demolition process as soon as possible, so that no such incident is repeated,” he said.

Currently, a total of 15 families are living in towers G and H of the society. Flat owners have alleged they
have neither been given alternative flats nor paid rent by the builder, due to which people have been
unable to shift.
DTP (enforcement) Manish Yadav said an order has been issued to the builder for the barricading. “If
barricading is not carried out, it will be considered negligence on the part of the builder. In such a
situation, if any accident happens, the builder will be held responsible. Along with this, the RWA has also
been requested to cooperate in barricading, as some members have been opposing closing of some common areas by barricades citing various reasons,” he said

A resident said the developer has started barricading, but many areas within the premises are still exposed
and in case any large chunk falls from these unsafe towers, it can pose a risk to them.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the developer said, “We had earlier brought to the district administration’s
notice that our efforts to ensure safety of residents by barricading the dangerous areas around these towers
have been always scuttled by some residents and RWA officials.” In one such incident, the developer had
even lodged a police complaint and had requested the authorities to take action against some persons who
removed the poles being fixed to barricade an area, the spokesperson added.
After the February 2022 cave-in, the district administration announced a structural audit of all the towers of the project.