Following complaints of concrete and iron rods dropping from the ceilings at the Jains Westminster apartment in Chennai’s Saligramam, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) had initiated a probe. A senior official from CMDA told TNM that a team of CMDA planners and Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) Engineers had assessed the property and published an inconclusive report.
The report suspects that the water used during construction to have had high chloride content. "The samples will be sent to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras for ascertaining the reason," a senior official from CMDA told TNM. Following IIT-M's lab report, CMDA will send a show-cause notification to the builder, the offficial added. Further, they ascertained that the Structural Engineer of Jains Westminster project from the builders’ side and the builder will be penalised for issuing a completion certificate without ensuring safety and durability of construction.
“Depending on the severity of the damage which will be ascertained by IIT-M, CMDA along with GCC will initiate combined action. If the structural problems are beyond repair, we will have to evacuate people immediately from the building and take subsequent action. If not, we will ask the builder- Jain Housing and Construction, to carry out repair works,” the senior official said.
GCC Commissioner J Radhakrishnan corroborated and added that the corporation’s first priority is the safety of the residents. “After I saw the visuals I immediately told the Owners Association to ask people to vacate the premises immediately. Action can and will be initiated against whoever is found guilty but we are firstly advising the residents to evacuate to avoid danger to their lives,” he told TNM. If the reports indicate extreme hazard, then the corporation will be forced to issue an evacuation notice, he added.
Meanwhile, the Jains Westminster Owners Welfare Association along with Sachin Mehta and Vijay Shekawat from Jain Housing and Construction held a meeting on Saturday, August 5. At the meeting, the owners’ association proposed for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to carry out a study and ascertain if the building is repairable within a span of 45 days starting from Tuesday, August 8. “We had personally approached IIT for conducting a study but the cost quoted was Rs 2 crore which we couldn’t afford,” the association’s secretary Kumar had previously told TNM.
“Jain housing has agreed to come back with a timeline and schedule by August 9 and they have proposed to get a certificate from the Repairs and rehabilitation department of IIT or from an accredited government agency,” the minutes of the meeting read.
TNM has learnt that if the reports indicate that the building can be repaired, then the association along with the builder will draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU will highlight the way forward with the terms and conditions that both the parties agree on.