ROOF COLLAPSE IN GURGAON APARTMENT
ONE PERSON DIED AND TWO FEARED TRAPPED
At Chintel Paradiso society in Gurgaon’s Sector 109 on Thursday, One person died and at least two, including a bureaucrat, were feared trapped after a large chunk of the sixth floor collapsed all the way down to the first floor,
Until late night, rescue efforts were being undertaken by teams of the NDRF, SDRF, police and fire departments. Officials said the incident took place around 6.15 pm when repair work was going on at the sixth floor of tower D. The casualties could have been higher, officials said, but the sixth, fifth and third floor were vacant, while the family who lives on the fourth had gone out for a function.
“The flats cost Rs 1.5 to 3 crore here. Chintel Paradiso is a residential society spread over 12 acres in sector 109 on Dwarka expressway.The society has nine towers and each tower has 18 floors. With such an investment of money, we were expecting peace of mind but often poor quality construction was witnessed and a complaint was also given to the government and police. No action was taken and as a result, two lives were lost,” Aman Arora, a local resident, said.A probe into the incident has been launched, a senior police officer said.
Over 400 residents of the plush Chintels Paradiso society of Gurugram are having sleepless nights after the floor of the sixth floor collapsed on lower floors, triggering a chain reaction of collapsing roofs till the ground floor. The incident that occurred on Thursday evening left two women dead and over a dozen others injured.
“A woman on the second floor has died. On the first floor, a serving bureaucrat with the Indian Railway Service of Engineers, identified as Arun Srivastava, and his wife are stuck under the rubble,” said Nishant Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner, Gurgaon.
Holding the developer responsible for the incident, Bhardwaj said the incident had happened due to negligent and substandard construction work done by the managing director OF Chintel Group. Ashok Soloman and contractor of construction.
A case was registered against the MD and others section 304 A (culpable homicide) and 34(common intention) of the Indian Penal code (IPC) at Bajghera Police station.
On Friday, many residents moved out of the society, apprehensive of the quality of the construction.”We are going to stay at our relatives’ place till a safety audit is not conducted,” Rakesh, a resident of Chintels Paradiso, said. The residents say they complained about the poor construction quality of the building to the police and the government authorities, but no action was taken.
Chintels Paradiso said in in a statement, “This is an extremely unfortunate incident and we have taken it very seriously as the safety of our residents is our utmost concern. Upon preliminary investigations, we have come to know that some negligence in repair work done by the contractor in an apartment led to this incident. We are fully cooperating with the authorities and ensuring all support. We extend our heartfelt condolence to the affected families.”