After SC order, Chintels flat owners to meet authorities

The developer on Friday said that they have asked the occupants of towers G and H to vacate the flats immediately

A day after the Supreme Court directed the builder of the Chintels Paradiso society in Gurugram to pay rent to flat owners who agreed to vacate the site for reconstruction of their houses, the district administration on Friday said that it will ensure strict compliance of the court’s directions.

Collapsed balconies in Tower D of the Chintels Paradiso condominium located in Gurugram’s Sector 109 in December 2023. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

Renovations at a sixth-floor flat in Chintels Paradiso Tower D on February 10, 2022, led to the ceiling of a bedroom collapsing, resulting in a cascade effect of portions of flats caving in, all the way down to the first floor. Two people had died in the incident. A subsequent safety audit of the buildings, carried out by IIT Delhi, had found five out of the nine towers in the society are structurally unsafe.

On Friday, deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav said a delegation of the Chintels Paradiso RWA and flat owners called upon him, seeking expeditious approvals and early reconstruction of the project, fair payment of rent at market rate, and handing over the structural audit report of Tower J at the earliest.

“We have not received the detailed court order yet but we have assured the home owners that all necessary steps will be taken to ensure that construction of towers starts at the earliest,” he said.

The DC further said that the owners have demanded that assessment of rent to be paid to owners should be done at the time when reconstruction starts and not now. “We have also agreed on this point and a committee at district level will be formed, when the reconstruction starts to assess a fair rent value to be paid to owners. We have also decided to consider the demand for valuation of internal works in flats when demolition of towers takes place,” he said.

Yadav said that he has also directed officials concerned to ensure that the structural audit report of Tower J, which was submitted earlier, be shared with the owners and RWA soon. “We have been working to resolve this complex issue since this incident happened on February 10, 2022. All efforts will be made to ensure that flat owners get due compensation and those opting for flats get it within the fixed timelines,” he said.

Separately, the developer on Friday said that they have asked the occupants of towers G and H to vacate the flats immediately. “We will disconnect power and water supplies to these two towers on Monday and appeal to residents to vacate these flats so that demolition process can be initiated,” said JN Yadav, vice president, Chintels.

The occupants of flats however said that they will vacate the towers only by January 15. Manoj Singh, a flat owner in Tower H said, “We will vacate the flats by January 15.”