15 Gurugram societies 'safe', despite exposed iron rods

Sumedha Sharma

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Gurugram, December 12

The Gurugram administration has ordered the second round of non-destructive structural tests for 15 residential societies. These were found structurally safe in rapid visual inspection study. The societies were selected for structural audit in first phase of the exercise after the Chintels Paradiso collapse on February 10.

Problems ‘repairable’

The societies did show problems like seepage, especially in basements, peeling of plasters or exposed iron rods but these were dubbed as management issues rather than structural and were termed repairable.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Nishant Kumar Yadav today held a joint meeting with RWAs of the societies concerned, their developers and audit firms. “The audit, so far, has not found anything that poses a serious structural threat or is non-repairable. However if not dealt expertly and quickly, these might lead to serious structural issues. We have now ordered second phase of tests which will check the core quality of the buildings and suggest proper repairs,” said Yadav.

Though the audit reports are yet to be made public, documents accessed by The Tribune reveal that amongst the worst-affected societies are of Raheja builders especially Raheja Vedanta, Brisk Lumbini and M3M Woodshire.

The most common findings in all societies include leakage in basements from expansion joints/ drain/sleeve, exposed reinforcements, damage or fallen plaster of structural elements at some places, honeycombing in structural elements, cracks in beams mainly sleeve location, leakage in sunken portion of toilets, dampness in shaft walls, damages to internal and external plaster at joints and non-structural cracks.

The Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) had issued a work order on September 12 to four private firms to conduct a structural audit of 16 condominiums in the city. The report of one condominium is awaited.

While the audit process is still on, the majority of builders went ahead with painting and plastering the affected areas before or after the inspection.