look news india
After the painful and sensational incidents of collapse of buildings in Satya Niketan and other busy areas of Delhi, now such a scary and eye-opening report has come out from Ghaziabad, a posh and rapidly developing industrial city of Uttar Pradesh, which has given sleepless nights to both the common citizens and the administrative department. A recent technical survey conducted by Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) and related housing departments has revealed that a total of 2,292 flats built in the densely populated Tulsi Niketan area of the city have now become completely dilapidated, dangerous and dilapidated, in which a major accident can happen at any time. Not only Tulsi Niketan, but also the towers of two big residential buildings in Vaishali, a very high-profile and expensive area of the city, have been found in dangerous condition, after which an atmosphere of shudder and panic has arisen among hundreds of families living there. In view of this serious situation, the biggest question has become whether the district administration will be able to avert a major accident by safely evacuating the innocent people living in these ‘houses of death’ in time or is something untoward waiting to happen.
Why and how did the condition of the multi-storey buildings of Tulsi Niketan become so bad?
Tulsi Niketan area, which is counted among the old and important residential complexes of Ghaziabad, may have been built with strong expectations at the time of its establishment, but after decades, due to reasons like proper maintenance, lack of timely repairs and use of substandard construction materials, these buildings have become completely hollow from inside. When the load-bearing capacity of the walls, pillars and roofs of these buildings was examined by a team of technical experts and engineers, it was found that the concrete had completed its life and the bars had completely rusted out, due to which the entire building could collapse at any time like a house of cards. Thousands of poor and middle class families living in these complexes are living in these flats after investing their entire life’s savings, but now death is looming over their heads like a heavenly calamity every moment. Local residents say that they had several times given written complaints about these dilapidated conditions to the concerned departments and authority officials, but every time they did not get anything except paper assurances.
Cracks and dilapidated condition in high-profile towers of Vaishali also increased the concern of the authority.
This problem is not limited only to old areas like Tulsi Niketan, but the kind of pictures emerging from Vaishali, one of the most modern and expensive areas of Ghaziabad, have raised serious questions on the working style of urban planners and builders. After receiving complaints of sudden deep cracks and collapse of pillars in two big towers of a popular residential project in Vaishali, when the technical team of GDA inspected there, it found that these towers had also completely failed in the structural audit. There is panic among the rich and middle class flat owners living in these towers because the house bought by spending crores of rupees is now no less than a dreadful prison for them. This serious disaster, which arose due to the negligence of builders and maintenance society, has proved that strict standards were never implemented on the quality of ground construction and its regular monitoring in Ghaziabad, the consequences of which today the general public has to suffer by risking their lives.
Administrative and GDA lost sleep, action for eviction and sending notice started
As soon as the detailed report of these 2,292 flats and dilapidated towers of Vaishali reached the tables of top officials of Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) and the district administration, there was chaos in the department and emergency meetings were immediately called. With immediate effect, the authority has issued strict notices to all residents living in these dangerous complexes of Tulsi Niketan and Vaishali to immediately vacate their flats and shift to safer places. However, as easy as it appears on paper to issue a notice, the bigger challenge is to arrange alternative accommodation for thousands of these displaced families, because the sudden order to leave their homes has posed a serious threat to people’s livelihood and children’s education. The administration says that saving people’s lives is our first and foremost priority at this time, therefore, if necessary, these dilapidated buildings will be vacated even by using force and later the demolition process will be started.
Lessons for the future and murmurs of big action against illegal and dilapidated construction in Ghaziabad.
This heart-wrenching incident in Ghaziabad is not a problem of just one city, but it is a big warning to all the metros and urban bodies of the country where in the name of rapid urbanization, the age of buildings and their safety standards are being ignored. If the local administration does not learn a lesson from the Satya Niketan incident, then incidents like Ghaziabad can take the form of a major massacre in the future, which has now become mandatory to stop. The GDA is now planning to conduct mandatory structural audit of other old and suspicious premises across the city so that other ‘houses of death’ in the city can be identified and sealed in time. The public is now expecting that the administration should not just limit itself to the formality of issuing notices, but should also take legal action against the culprits and the builders doing shoddy construction, setting such an example that in future no one would dare to play with human lives.