Builders And Friends

The links are so deep that often, it is impossible to distinguish the politician from the real estate man

Updated on: 7 February 2024 7:25 pm

In July 1999, Shailesh Shanbagh, a geologist with the Gujarat Water Resources Development Corporation, and nine others of Himgiri Apartments, now a pile of rubble, wrote to the builders about the poor construction of their flats. A consortium of developers led by Kantaben Chandulal Modi assured him the trouble lay with the plaster. The builders were charging a hefty maintenance fee. Shanbagh was buried under the debris.

In Mansi Apartments, one of the worst casualties in Ahmedabad, residents complained to the builders, Rajubhai-Manubhai Vyas, about a number of unauthorised additions that had come up. These included a massive swimming pool, a fancy penthouse and some other rooms that were not in the original plan. Says Minesh Bhatt, a resident of Mansi who lost his wife, three children and mother: "The builders, who went on minting money with every new request, just laughed off our fears, saying the structure was solid enough to take many shocks. As for authorities taking action, I do not think anyone had any illusions."

Take Visat Apartments, where 12 people died. It had plans for 16 flats but the builders—Vinaychandra Chandulal Shah and V. Shah—built 24 flats, apart from a few shops thrown in for good measure. Now, engineers of the road and building department say that the load-bearing capacity of the building could have gone wide of the mark with illegal construction and utility services like water tanks and staircase loaded on an already-cracked beam-column frame.

What efforts are being made to investigate complaints that substandard material was used for construction, including the proportion of cement and sand used, the elasticity and strength of steel bars and other related matters, and are experts being used to check the sample of the debris?

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Whether any special cell has been constituted by the state government for the purposes of prosecuting such complaints by those who have suffered as well as for dispensing compensation?

l Whether builders responsible for faulty construction have been identified and action proceeded against them?

What action will the government take against officials of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority?