Flats damaged as Vaishali high-rise water tank bursts

Ghaziabad: Hundreds of residents of Express Green high-rise in Sector 1, Vaishali moved out of their houses on Wednesday after a big water tank installed on the roof of a 12-storey tower got burst and thousands of litres of water ran down causing damages to several flats

Ghaziabad: Hundreds of residents of Express Green high-rise in Sector 1, Vaishali moved out of their houses on Wednesday after a big water tank installed on the roof of a 12-storey tower got burst and thousands of litres of water ran down causing damages to several flats. The residents, alleging lack of maintenance by the developer, also lodged an FIR at Kaushambi police station.

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The high-rise has several residential towers having about 620 flats. The residents said that it was about 1.15pm when they heard a loud sound and rushed out of their flats.

“When we moved to the tower, we saw that thousands of litres of water was gushing out from the main water tank installed on the roof of tower A. The flow of water damaged boundary walls of the floors and window glasses of five flats were also damaged,” said Arun Singh, general secretary, Express Green RWA.

“We have several maintenance issues in different towers, and it is due to negligence on part of the developer that the incident took place,” Singh said, adding that the maintenance staff were trying to install a new water tank.

Shraddha Garg, resident of tower A, said that she called up emergency number for help. “I was not at home. I got a call from my home that the water tank had burst and window glasses of several flats were damaged. When I reached, I found that 9th, 10th and 11th floors were damaged and several feet of water was flooded over the ground floor,” Garg said.

“Doors of the electricity panels were also damaged. Water had also entered the lifts and there was no electricity till 7pm,” she added.

The residents approached the Kaushambi police and gave a complaint for lodging of an FIR.

Mahendra Singh, station house officer, Kaushambi police station, said that police registered an FIR under IPC sections 288 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down or repairing buildings) and 427 (causing damages). “The FIR is lodged against five named officials of the builder’s firm,” he added.

Officials of Express Properties, the developer, said that the new water tank is being installed. “Our staff are taking up the repair work at the site. It has been 11 years since we constructed the building, and a firm is looking after the maintenance work. We help in case any problem arises. We cannot say if some bolts got loosened up or anyone tampered with the setup. The tank had a capacity of about 10-12 thousand litres,” said Amit Goel, head (marketing) at Express Properties.