You reap what you sow: Supreme court orders to demolish Chintel's Five towers

Five  towers in Chintels Paradiso housing complex in Gurugram is undergoing a demolition process by Edifice Engineering, which taken over the construction of  Supertech twin towers in Noida in a controlled explosion in August 2022. One of the company spokesperson said that, all five towers - D, E, F, G, and H - will be razed by the mechanical demolition technique.

After the commencement of demolition process the flat owners have appealed to the deputy commissioner to direct the builder to start paying the rent for alternate accommodation to those residents who have chosen the option of reconstruction of flats at the same site.

When a portion of tower D of the housing complex in Gurugram sector 109 collapsed in February 2022, two women were reportedly died. The subsequent structural safety audit reports of IIT Delhi had revealed that towers D, E, F, G, and H of the society were “usafe to live” and recommended demolition of these towers.

Mayur Mehta of Edifice Engineering told, everything is getting done properly and demolition work has started. He quoted, “Process of demolition of towers has started at Chintels Paradiso this week. Unlike controlled implosion, these towers will be demolished by manual and mechanical method. At present we have engaged a workforce of 50 people to start the demolition activities and this number will be increased depending on the need. More machines will be engaged in future for the purpose.”

He further said that, the demolition work has just started and it is scheduled to be finished by eight months but factors like daily work timeframe, available space to move heavy machines and others may vary.

Edifice Engineering had suggested the mechanical and manual demolition technique, involving machines, at Chintels Paradiso instead of a controlled implosion method, which was used in the demolition of Noida’s Supertech twin towers.

Supertech’s twin towers Apex (32 storeys) and Ceyane (29 storeys) were razed by the controlled implosion technique in August 2022 and were touted as the third tallest structures in the world to be so demolished.

Presently, all the five towers are vacated but 225 families are there in towers A, B, C, and J. Currently the agency is removing aluminum shuttering, PVC doors and panels, tiles, floors, stones, windows, and other interior elements of the flats in the towers, which are being demolished.

President of RWA Chintels Paradiso, Rakesh Hooda,“The builder must pay suitable rent to affected buyers from the commencement of re-construction until the project gets completed. As per the Supreme Court directions the developer should pay the rent to affected homebuyers. We have written a letter to the deputy commissioner (DC) Gurugram and requested him to fix the rate of reasonable rent and instruct the builder for the payment of rent.”