Ghaziabad authorities get cracking, order sealing of 292 buildings

In the wake of flooding of roads and parking lots, road cave-ins and wall collapse threatening buildings, Ghaziabad authorities has cracked the whip on constructions done in violation of rules and ordered the sealing of nearly 300 such buildings, an official said on Sunday.

The official said that a survey by GDA officials had detected violation of rules in as many as 292 buildings, following which these were sealed.

"A heavy penalty will be imposed on errying owners," said GDA Chief Engineer V.N. Singh.

After the damage caused by the downpour and danger to public safety due to cave-ins, Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) Vice Chairperson and District Magistrate Ritu Maheshwari had on Friday ordered a survey in the entire notified area in the district.

Following the detection of illegalities, she ordered the booking of five realtors on the charge of taking up digging of basements and leaving the work incomplete, leading to landslides and cave-in of roads and threats to multi-storeyed buildings in the vicinity.

Maheshwari directed Additional District Magistrate Himanshu Gautam to issue an advisory for the evacuation of old buildings on priority in case of any cracks in the structures owing to heavy rain.

She said such buildings should be vacated after taking the opinion of structural engineers.

Directions were issued for evacuation within 24 hours of people residing on river beds in the district due to the alert sounded by the Irrigation Department.

In case of water-logging in low-lying areas, people were advised to inform the flood control room of the Municipal Corporation. The residents welfare associations of high-rise buildings were advised to inform the district administration in case of water flowing into the basements of their residential societies.

Municipal Commissioner C.P. Singh (8178016900), ADM City Himanshu Gautam (7683045193), City Magistrate Santosh Bahadur Singh (8057425869), SDM Loni Satendra Singh (9415633763), SDM Ghaziabad Vivek Mishra (8130240336), SDM Modi Nagar Pawan Agrawal (9454416779) and control room (01202829040) can be contacted in case of emergency.

--IANS

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