Paradiso lost shabby construction is taking a toll across urban india as municipal regulators sleep on their job

Paradiso lost shabby construction is taking a toll across urban india as municipal regulators sleep on their job

As challenging as the long haul to take possession of one’s home can be in India, the multi-storeyed cave-in at Gurgaon’s Chintels Paradiso complex highlights what home-buyers are up against even afterwards. Even as two FIRs have been filed, including one naming the directors of the real estate company, the structural engineers and the architect, and an SIT has begun investigating the case, the district’s town and country planner has declared four more towers in the building complex unfit for living. Identifying and punishing the guilty is a necessary part of the restitution process. But actually preventing the building collapses that have become a common story across urban India needs fixing a more fundamental regulatory rot.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act makes provision for the promoter rectifying structural defects without further charge if they are brought to its notice within five years of handing over possession. But, first, this five-year provision is woefully inadequate given that a person invests in a home for her lifetime and her children’s beyond that. Second, legal expenses here would both be considerable and on top of EMI and rent. Rather than homeowners from Shimla and Delhi to Mumbai and Bengaluru wretchedly chasing compensation and justice, municipal regulators must do their job properly in the first place.

In the Chintels case, not only the original structural audit but also its follow-up after a roof slab collapsed last July, were evidently subpar. Failures to enforce state building bylaws and to make sure that the National Building Code of India is followed, are tied to rampant corruption. But equally, municipal authorities are very poor in engineering, geological and other building forensics skills. This is also a reminder of the limits of new CMs to deliver change, as long as local governance is overwhelmingly corrupt and/or inept.