MCD issues eviction notice for Signature View Apartment residents

New Delhi: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has issued an eviction notice to the residents of Signature View Apartment in northwest Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar, asking them to vacate the society by Monday declaring it "unfit for human habitation".

Built in 2007-09 with 336 with Middle-Income Group (MIG) and High-Income Group (HIG) flats, the apartment complex has some construction issues and the Delhi Development Authority has decided to demolish it.

The notice, dated December 18, says the society is dangerous and uninhabitable and the residents should vacate it in seven days.

The Residents' Welfare Association (RWA) said they are ready to vacate provided they are paid rent by the authority till the time new flats are constructed.

The decision to dismantle the towers was taken on the advise of a structural consultant engaged by the DDA after the residents' complaints of poor quality construction.

The DDA roped in the National Council of Cement and Building Material (NCCBM) to suggest remedial measures and on its recommendations, structural consultant of IIT-Delhi was engaged. Building material samples were tested at the Shri Ram Institute of Industrial Research (SLR), Delhi.

"The structural consultant suggested that distress in the structure (of the building) appears to be due to chloride in the structure (higher then permissible) which is cause of deterioration of concrete and corrosion of reinforcement and towers be vacated and dismantled as soon as possible.

"As per communication received from DDA and structural audit report, the towers of Signature View Apartment are dangerous and unfit for human habitation," it said.

It has been reported that houses/flats in the towers A, B, C and D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L are in dangerous condition and in any way dangerous to any person occupying, passing by and also in the neighborhood, the notice said.

RWA president Amrendra Kumar Rakesh said that they want rent to be released by the DDA on eviction. "The structure is dangerous and we also want it to be demolished as soon as possible. We want to leave it, but also need rent on eviction," he said.

The DDA had earlier offered to pay the residents rent only if all 336 flats are vacated. The RWA cited inability to get all the flat-owners to handover their keys at once, and requested the authority to bring down the 100 per cent vacation clause to 75 per cent.