Gurugram Society declared unsafe for living, residents have to vacate houses by March 1

Gurugram: During a meeting among Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav, the residents of Green View society in Sector 37D and National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), it was decided that from a safety point of view, the houses will be vacated by March 1.

140 families are currently living in the society. The society has been declared as unsafe to live by the NBCC. The NBCC has given the option to these families to shift to an alternate residential facility and will bear the costs of shifting them. In case the families do not wish to stay in the alternate residential facilities decided by the body, they can stay on rent in a flat which is the size of the flat in which they are currently residing.

In this meeting held in the auditorium on the first floor of the Mini Secretariat, Yadav said that in case, the residents want a refund, the district administration will order NBCC to refund with interest in one month, in which the interest will be given at simple rates according to law and legal provisions.

Yadav explained to the residents in the meeting that they will retain the ownership of their flats and demolition would not be done without giving proper compensation to the owner.

"A decision regarding the refund will be taken after the report of the second expert committee and if it is found in the report that the building is safe to live in and can get okay after few repairs and residents are not willing to stay and want a refund, a refund will be provided with lawful interest," he added.

Yadav said that if NBCC gives safety certificates to the residents after the report of the second committee report, the residents who wish to stay in the society can stay. But keeping the present circumstances in mind, all will have to vacate the society for once. "Government and administration hold the safety of lives and property of the residents as its topmost priority," he added.

Yadav said that the report given by IIT Delhi on the structure of the building will be shared with the residents. "Not only this, the second expert committee consisting of four members from CPRI, IIT Roorkee will also talk to the representatives of the residents and explain all the aspects while conducting the safety audit of the building," he added.

NBCC CMD PK Gupta and CGM Noman Ahmed were also present at the meeting. After hearing the residents, Gupta said that he does not deny that the residents are aggrieved and since the flats have been constructed by NBCC, he is guilty.

"Whatever happened to this complex having 700-800 flats, it happens very less. Even we were surprised that why this happened, why we could not understand how cracks were coming in the exterior of the building. That is why we engaged the experts from IIT Delhi in the safety audit," he added. Gupta said that the team of IIT after a study recommended testing, in which it was seen that there is chloride in water, which is causing corrosion.

"We wanted to get repairs done but the second wave of COVID-19 arrived. When the repairs started, the work turned out to be more than anticipated by us. After that rains came. After this, the team of IIT Delhi were also surprised that it could not assess how fast the building was getting damaged," he added. Gupta said that IIT Delhi gave its conclusion that the building is unsafe and it has to be vacated in two months.

"After this, NBCC could not decide whether to repair and dismantle, hence an expert committee consisting of four members from CPRI and IIT Roorkee was formed. Many tests have been done again, for which reports are yet to come," he added.

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