GURGAON: A portion of the roof ledge at Oakwood Estate off MG Road collapsed on Thursday evening, causing damage to two cars in the stilt parking area of D Tower. The incident has sparked safety concerns among residents.
No one was near the vehicles at the time but residents were shaken by what could have been a major accident. The society was undergoing repair work when the incident occurred.Oakwood Estate Condominium Association, which is carrying out maintenance of the society, is being accused of substandard workmanship.
Amit Puri, whose car was among those damaged, criticised the association for mismanagement. “For the last one and a half years, repair work has been going on, but it has been done carelessly without following proper procedures. On Thursday evening, a slab was repaired, but after showers, it collapsed. I had parked my car 10 minutes before the incident. A guard called to inform me about it. A child was standing there moments before the collapse,” Puri said.
The association has denied any wrongdoing and insisted that they have raised concerns about the building’s structural integrity with the developer.
Vipin Yadav, president of association, said, “The society is nearly two decades old and repair work is almost over. The incident occurred in an area where no repair work was being carried out. The cantilever slab reinforcement steel bar, which was to support the concrete, was missing. We have written to the builder asking it to conduct a proper check as we suspect similar flaws may exist in other ledges as well. Their team has visited the society and acknowledged the issue of missing reinforcement steel bars since the construction of the society. This is a construction fault, there is no lack of maintenance on the part of the association. We have also called a meeting of the association on Sunday.” Oakwood Estate was handed over to the association by the builder around 17 years ago. Police arrived at the scene after incident, but no case was filed as the offence was deemed non-cognisable.
DTP (enforcement) Manish Yadav said, “No complaint has been received. We will conduct checks and actions will be taken as per the rules.”
