GHAZIABAD: As the first board meeting of Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) this year draws near, it is deliberating on the agenda that will be taken up in the meeting scheduled for Jan 27, with “a compulsory structural audit proposal” topping it.
Prior to this, a meeting was called by the Meerut divisional commissioner on Thursday to discuss the agenda. Sources in the GDA said that a compulsory structural audit proposal will be placed before the board.
A GDA official said, “According to the proposal, a structural audit of multi-storey buildings will be made mandatory every three years. It will be the responsibility of the developer to ensure the structural audit and in case maintenance is transferred to the apartment owners’ association (AOA), the responsibility will be with them. The proposal has listed IITs, NITs and equivalent institutes to carry out the structural audit.”
The Housing Board earlier adopted the UP govt’s structural audit policy, which was implemented.
“After the proposal is passed in the board, the GDA will also adopt the policy, which will go a long way in ensuring the structural safety of buildings and also fixing accountability on the maintenance body,” the official said.
The structural audit policy is based on two major defects of construction, which will be classified under major and minor defects. “Under major defects, cracks in the foundation of the building or cracks in walls or floors will be considered, while under minor defects, peeling off plasters, etc., will be considered. If in the structural audit the fault is major in nature, the maintenance agency will have to get it rectified within six months, and the work has to commence within one month. If the defect is minor in nature, it has to be rectified within six months, and the cost will have to be borne by the maintenance agency,” the official said.
Ashish Kumar of Supertech Icon Society in Indirapuram said, “There have been instances when the structure of a building weakened, resulting in the peeling of plasters and cave-ins of ceilings, causing injuries. The developers, on their part, absolves themselves of any such incidents once the handover is made, and RWAs or AOA many times dither in getting such structural defects rectified because of cost involvement.”
“On a major level, I am not aware of a robust mechanism to deal with structural issues of a building, but a proposal of this nature with such salient features, where accountability is fixed and rectification will have to be done within a stipulated time, will serve the purpose,” Kumar said.
The fact that Delhi-NCR comes under seismic zone-4 makes such structurally deficient buildings prone to earthquakes, so a compulsory structural audit of a building on a regular basis is very important, he said.
