Structural audits now mandatory for Buildings older than 15 years

By Dr Suvrokamal Dutta

Following the recent Borivali building collapse in Mumbai, the urban development department has made structural audits mandatory for 15 years or older buildings. But the pivotal factor here is that exactly the same sort of guidelines were issued six years ago and were observed only in breach.

According to experts, announcing guidelines are one thing, implementing them is another matter. If one takes into account reports from number of housing federations, you will find that most co-operative housing societies do not comply with the orders of the state government issued in 2001 for structural audits.

Furthermore, it has come into the notice of The Indian Street that the registrar of co-operative housing societies, a quasi-judicial authority has no records on how many housing society buildings in the Mumbai have complied with these guidelines.

In my opinion, more than 95 percent of cooperative housing societies in Mumbai do not comply with the structural audit guidelines. The only solution is that additions and alterations without the consent of the society and corporations should be made a cognizable offence and an FIR should be immediately lodged.

It is worthwhile pointing that there are plenty of cases where alert members or the society have complained about unauthorized constructions, additions and alterations to the BMC and police but with no help from any quarters. Finally, many are forced to move to the court for stopping the unauthorized work. In terms of statistic, there are around 29,000 cooperative housing building societies in city registered under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act.

That is where, the Registrar of Cooperative Societies should have maintained a register- recording all structural audits of society buildings but the authority alone cannot be blamed, if societies are negligent. Generally speaking, the authority can act if there is a written complaint from any member. However, a structural audit of the building is not going to save lives but will only highlight the health of the building. The primary responsibility is on society to see the building is in good condition.

There is no doubt in my mind that there is a need to take swift action against the unauthorized work, once there is a complaint from a citizen. Furthermore, managing a housing society is a serious affair and complacency can put lives of residents in danger. In case if a housing society is not vigilant when additions and alterations are done in flats, then the committee will be equally responsible for various acts of omission and commissions if the building collapses.

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