A resident showing cracks in the wall of an apartment in the DDA housing complex in north Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
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Gaurav Pandey, residents’ welfare association (RWA) secretary of Signature View Apartments in north Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, points towards the exposed beams on the ceiling of his apartment’s washroom and the cracks in his kitchen that have emerged over time. “If any untoward incident happens here, the DDA will be responsible. It is delaying our rehabilitation and playing games with us even after these buildings have been declared unsafe,” he said.
Bhupinder Chaudhary, a resident, says, “People here walk with caution, as they fear that a portion of the towers may crumble and fall at any moment.”
The DDA’s Signature View Apartments, which has 336 flats — 112 Middle-Income Group and 224 High-Income Group — in 12 towers, was constructed in 2010.
‘Handed over in 2011’
Soon after getting possession of the apartments in 2011-12, the allottees pointed out several construction-related issues in the complex.
A 2022 study by IIT Delhi, commissioned by the DDA, stated that the buildings were “structurally unsafe” and must be vacated and “dismantled as soon as possible to prevent any loss of life”. In January this year, Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena ordered the DDA to redevelop the entire property and rehabilitate the residents.
Criminal proceedings
He also ordered criminal proceedings against the contractors and agencies involved in the construction and a vigilance inquiry to identify the officials responsible for the lapses.
As part of the rehabilitation package, the residents say, they were offered three choices by the urban body — sell their flat back to DDA, get monthly rent till the redevelopment is concluded or accept alternative flats in DDA’s other housing projects.
However, the residents are yet to move out of the unsafe buildings. This is because the DDA offered to buy back the flats at prices much lower than the market rates, residents say, adding that the monthly rents offered by the urban body were also below par.
“The DDA also offered us alternative flats, but only in its housing colonies in Dwarka, Narela and Jasola. However, there are other issued with the inventory in these areas due to which those flats have remained unsold or been returned by the allottees,” said Mr. Pandey.
Amarendra Kumar, who heads the RWA, noted that the IIT-D report was not the first to highlight that the buildings here were unsafe. He said such issues were also highlighted in a 2015 report by the National Council for Cement and Building Materials.
‘Want to move out’
Mr. Chaudhary said that the residents want to move out of the apartment complex as the condition of the buildings is expected to deteriorate during the coming monsoon. “We are thankful to the L-G for his intervention, but the DDA is still reluctant to act quickly. So, we want to move out, but not without a plan and a written agreement,” he said.
He added that the urban body had collected maintenance charges, close to ₹7 lakh per flat, for 30 years from the residents at the time of the allotment.
When reached, the DDA and Raj Niwas did not offer a comment.
