Four-storey structure in Ghaziabad develops cracks, adjoining buildings vacated

The owner of the building—which is located in Lokpriya Vihar—had reported the developments to the administration forcing them for quick intervention.

A four-storey residential building in Khoda town developed cracks and a gap also appeared between it and an adjoining old building prompting the administration officials to get the structures and other buildings around it vacated.

A four-storey residential building in Khoda town developed cracks. (Rishikesh Choudhary/ Hindustan Times (Representative image))

The owner of the building—which is located in Lokpriya Vihar—had reported the developments to the administration forcing them for quick intervention.

In July last year, a five-storey building had collapsed in Lokpriya Vihar. No human injuries or casualties were reported.

According to officials, the four-storey building is built over 70 square yeards and was constructed a year ago. Its adjacent to an old building. Officials said the two buildings were built in such a way that they had no gaps in between but a two inches gap between the walls of the two buildings and some cracks were observed by the owner.

“The cracks were witnessed on the second floor of the building and there was a gap of over two inches between the walls of the two buildings. We examined the gap and three families living in the flats were immediately asked to vacate the building. Though it is a newly constructed building somehow it developed cracks. The gap suggests that the new building has also tilted to one side,” KK Bhadana, executive officer of Khoda Nagar Palika, said.

“To avoid any untoward incident we got the adjoining buildings vacated as well. We are taking help of structural safety officials to suggest a remedy for the crumbling building,” he added.

“Our officers went to the spot and got the tilted building vacated. The administration will take remedial measures soon,” Shlok Kumar, superintendent of police (city).

Khoda, which houses at least 42,000 building, was declared a Nagar Palika two years ago but has no building bylaws in place so far. As a result, the rampant construction activities take place in the town reportedly flouting building norms and standards.

One junior engineer of the Khoda Nagar Palika takes care of the drainage network of the town, officials said.

“Khoda was denotified from Noida in 1998 and is yet to get any building bylaws. The construction here follows no guidelines and quality of material used depends on the will of the private developers. After last year’s building collapse, the then district magistrate had sent a proposal to the state administration to include Khoda under the jurisdiction of the Ghaziabad development authority as they have defined bylaws and a specialised team of civil engineers. But the proposal has not materialised yet,” Bhadan added.