The Noida Authority has set up a committee to finalise the charges at which the empanelled agencies can conduct structural safety audits of buildings in the city. The committee will also determine whether and how the safety audit of a high-rise building is to be conducted, officials familiar with the development said.
The move will help streamline the audit process. Because the rates will be decided by the committee, there will be no chance of wrong or overpricing.
From April this year, the Noida Authority has made it mandatory for builders applying for occupancy certificates, or OCs, to submit a structural safety audit report by one of seven empanelled institutions.
The technical institutions that have been empanelled to conduct structural safety audits and issue safety certificates are Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, Delhi Technical University, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (Allahabad), Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, Aligarh Muslim University, Malaviya National Institute of Technology (Jaipur), and Central Building Research Institute (Roorkee), the authority said.
A senior official in the planning department of the Noida Authority said the committee will comprise an additional Chief Executive Officer, a general manager (planning), a deputy general manager, and one empanelled expert agency to decide on prices that will be charged for structural safety audits.
Price of audits
“The prices may vary on case to case basis. As in older societies where damage is high, the prices may be higher in comparison to those in societies with less structural issues,” the official told Moneycontrol, requesting anonymity.
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Explaining the procedure for structural safety audit of a building, especially high-rises, the official said that if 25 percent or more residents of any tower complain of a structural defect, an audit will be conducted by specialist institutions for major-category defects after an examination by the committee.
He said the committee will inspect the building or society in question to determine whether a safety audit should be conducted. It will then decide on the price depending on the situation.
The Noida Authority had in November last year approved a structural safety policy defining the responsibility of both developers and Apartment Owners’ Associations (AOAs) in ensuring the safety of high-rise buildings.
The structural safety audit policy was necessitated following incidents of building collapses across the National Capital Region (NCR) that includes Noida.
In February 2022, a portion of a tower in Chintels Paradiso society in Gurugram, Sector 109 collapsed, killing two women. After the collapse in Gurugram, residents across NCR demanded safety audits of high-rises.
Noida Authority officials said that there were over 1,200 high-rise buildings in the city and until last week the authority had received request for safety audit from five societies.
The guidelines also say that structural defects, if any, will be rectified by the builder within five years of the date of issue of the OC but in cases where OCs for high-rises were issued more than five years ago, the structural audits will be conducted by AOAs.
Homebuyers’ take
Homebuyers demanded representation of people in the committee that will decide pricing and the modalities of the audit.
Rajiva Singh, president of the Noida Federation of Apartment Owners Association (NOFAA), said that in a first step, an inspection needs to be carried out in all high-rises that are over 10 years old to ascertain if at all a detailed structural audit is required. This inspection should be carried out by the Noida Authority and administration.
“As a next step, in case there is a detailed structural audit recommended from the initial inspection report, a committee consisting of representatives from administration, people representation from AOAs and RWAs should be considered to look into the commercials involved as a result of such structural audits,” he said.
Also Read: MC Explains| A new Noida policy can change the way high-rises are bought in India
He also demanded that the builder needs to be made accountable in case of poor-quality structure and the developer along with the administration have to take the overall responsibility.
“A mere five years’ guarantee of the structure by the developer will not provide safety for high-rise dwellers,” he added.
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