The developers’ decision to demolish the multi-storey towers at the Chintels Paradiso Housing complex in Gurgaon and in the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA’s) Signature View Apartments in North Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar draws serious attention to the unfortunate state of the construction industry in India today. The newly built apartment structures have to be pulled down because of poor construction putting occupants lives at risk.
The proposal to demolish houses in both residential complexes has caused widespread concern amongst home buyers in the in and around Delhi. People who had invested their savings to buy a home that they intended to live in are not only sorely disappointed, but also angry at having waited for years to move into their apartments and then have their dreams shattered as their newly built apartments have to be evacuated and demolished.
Because of poor construction, chunks of plaster had begun to fall in different parts of the DDA apartments while in the case of Chintels Paradiso, in one of the apartment blocks, a large part of the sixth floor had fallen down all the way to the first floor, killing two women residents and injuring a man. Home owners in both complexes now have to wait as the developers proceed to demolish the constructed buildings, and then go through the process of reconstructing them.
Residents have been promised rental compensation until they are given possession of the newly constructed apartments. The terms offered by the two developers, DDA and Chintels, vary. The DDA is offering owners an added increase of around 20 sq. ft. in the balcony area of each apartment at a marginal increase in cost and some additional common facilities, whereas Chintels’ offer has not seen any change.
Owners have accepted the proposal to rebuild the houses in both cases as the alternative of accepting a cash settlement would be on the basis of the cost of construction at the time of original sale which is much lower in comparison to the cost of construction today and is not acceptable to most owners.
The DDA started construction of the 12 apartment towers consisting of 336 residential units in 2007 and completed them in 2011. Soon after taking possession in 2012, owners noticed minor cracks and structural defects appearing in the buildings. The first allottee entered his home to find that a part of the roof had caved in. Subsequently, ceiling plaster falling and cracks in beams and balconies was reported in 26 flats.
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Residents raised these issues with the DDA but received no positive response. In June 2022, DDA asked IIT Delhi and Shriram Laboratories to test the structural integrity of the buildings. IIT submitted their report in November 2022 declaring the buildings unfit for occupation. The Residents Welfare Association (RWA) negotiated the matter with DDA and settled for evacuation and demolition of all structures to be followed by new construction of the flats exactly as they were before along with the addition of 144 high income group (HIG) flats, 168 economically weaker section (EWS) flats as well as a clubhouse and community centre.
Chintels Paradiso in Gurgaon consisting of nine, 14 storey towers each with 60 apartments was completed in two phases in 2016 and in 2017. After the first few residents moved in, they observed structural issues, cracks in ceilings and balconies, tiles falling off, and deflection in some balconies. After a structural audit by IIT, two towers were declared unfit for occupation. In July 2021, in Tower H’s front lobby, a portion of the ceiling fell down. On February 10, 2022, the ceiling slab on the sixth floor of Tower D collapsed and fell all the way down to the first floor killing two women and injuring one man.
Another IIT report clearly stated that the towers were not safe for habitation because of the high chloride content in the concrete which caused corrosion of the steel bars and that all flats be vacated and demolished. Between April-July 2023, the builder provided two options to the affected residents – either buy back or accept total reconstruction of all apartment blocks. The offer to reconstruct was accepted.
Who is responsible?
It is worth exploring what really happened in terms of shortcomings in both these projects. How is it that the developers were not aware of the fact that the architects and structural engineers were not effectively involved in the process of implementing the project? In accordance with their professional commitment, they were required to not only provide the necessary drawings and details but also systematically oversee the actual construction on a timely basis. Did the failures occur only because of faulty implementation on the part of the contractors responsible for the construction? To some extent, the responsibility falls on all the professionals involved.
As unskilled labour forms a large part of the construction team, close monitoring of the implementation process by the supervisory staff is of prime importance. Although the volume of construction work has been steadily increasing across the country since the mid-1970s, the training of skilled craftsmen for construction work is inadequate and has not kept pace.
While architects and structural engineers are mainly responsible for producing the necessary drawings, specifications, and bill of quantities relating to their projects, they also need to check the progress of construction at different stages to ensure that work is being implemented in accordance with the plans.
‘Most of this so-called increase in ‘jobs’ in agriculture since 2019 is in ‘unpaid family labour’, a form of self-employment where women, youth and children join other family members to appear ‘employed’.’ Photo: jasleen_kaur/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
In the case of the aforementioned housing projects, it is quite clear that there were serious defaults in ensuring that specifications and drawing details were properly implemented. To some extent, this is because architects and engineers are generally paid fees that barely cover their cost as a result of which they tend to cut corners. DDA and other government agencies make a provision of 10% or more to cover their in-house design and engineering costs, but when it comes to architect’s and engineer’s fees, they generally pay 3% to 4% or even less.
The building industry happens to be one of the largest employers of workers in the informal sector. The average cost of construction in India is one of the lowest in the world. This is largely due to the small component allocated to labour in the total building cost. If building skills are to be improved, the cost of all labour will need to be substantially increased, along with a focussed increase in the process of training craftsmen all over the country. This can only happen if, in addition to setting up a large number of craft training institutes in every state, construction contractors implementing projects above a certain size were required, by law, to set up necessary skill training camps at their building sites. They should also be required to employ a specific number of such trained craftsmen. The enforcement of such training programs will increase the number of trained craftsmen all across the country.
Builders, who make the maximum profit from these, should be made directly responsible not only for developing skills but also to ensure safe conditions on building sites. They need to shift to updated construction methods along with ensuring job security for all workers. The system of daily wage labour being supplied by middlemen who do not really protect the workers’ long-term interests needs to be done away with.
Construction industry needs a complete overhaul
Despite the fact that the building industry has steadily grown over the years with more and more construction due to industrial growth and urban development, actual conditions on many building sites remain unsafe and primitive. It is common to see bamboo or wooden balli scaffolding, along with wooden ramps, tied together with ropes. Workers on such sites, including women, work without proper safety gear and harness and carry building materials like bricks and concrete on their heads.
Accidents are frequent and workers’ lives are at risk. But in the absence of any control, and because this system is cheap, contractors continue to avoid upgrading to save expense. This is a dangerous system that needs complete overhaul. This is possible, both, by the enactment of stringent laws as well as by training large numbers of skilled workers. The use of unskilled workers needs to be steadily reduced, and ultimately done away with completely across the nation.
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With the level of construction skills currently available, most contractors are only equipped to safely build ground plus two floors in most parts of the country. In the present situation, for all buildings that are higher than that, we are taking a serious risk by building unsafe structures.
In all construction work, the use of tubular steel scaffolding properly bolted together along with mechanical hoists and lifts for vertical movement of crew and material must be made compulsory. Concrete mixers with flexible pipes for delivery of mixed concrete is also necessary. Safety conditions with the proper enclosure of all buildings under construction must be ensured.
For the implementation of such proposals all workers need to be trained. Along with this, traditional skills related to carpentry, woodwork, cutting, polishing and installation of stonework, welding of steel, etc. along with the use of new machines and improved tools need to be taught and implemented with short term courses. Needless to say, all workers on building sites should also be provided with proper uniforms and safety gear without which they should not be permitted on building sites.
One of the important aspects of improving building techniques is the need to train workmen and engineers in project management. This involves proper coordination of different craft skills to ensure overall time and cost control with the help of pert charts, and the regular checking and upgrading of the different aspects of work on all building sites. Proper project management ultimately results in better construction at cheaper costs.
It is also important to ensure the provision of proper living accommodation for workers when construction sites are far from the villages or the area where the construction crew lives. In all large-scale development projects, a separate area should be allocated for building a complex of affordable dwelling units in close proximity. In order to ensure that the needs of skilled and unskilled workers and their families are taken care of, the entire complex along with community support facilities should be financed and maintained by the builders along with the provision of safe transportation to individual building sites. Support facilities like schools, health centres and informal sector shopping complexes should all be part of such organised low-income settlement.
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The proposal to provide living accommodation for workers on building sites is not new. This was a standard requirement of all large projects in the Middle East during the construction boom in the 1960s. All contractors had to provide proper living and support facilities for all the labour that they brought from overseas for construction projects.
The miserable conditions on most of our construction sites along with the exploitation of labour throughout the country continues unabated because of lack of government intervention and control.
Contractors must also be made responsible for the provision of crafts and skill training institutes which would provide training in construction related skills, along with separate courses or advanced training in IT-related construction systems. These should be permanent educational institutes, which would periodically be upgraded in relation to the latest available construction technology. Such crafts and skill training institutes may over time become self-supporting, maintaining a close link with the building industry.
A number of such institutions located in the rural areas of each state would help to not only provide employment, but also ensure proper and systematic development of all rural areas on a continuing basis in the future.
According to GDP data, India is currently one of the world’s fastest growing major economies and is currently in the middle of a housing boom. The demand for housing is steadily increasing in most urban areas and is expected to grow even faster in the years ahead. The long-awaited boom has created millions of new jobs. This has come after six years of debt and pandemic-induced downturn before the construction sector began improving last year. It has been driven by a severe housing shortage in big cities along with strong population growth. Steadily rising incomes has also been responsible for the increase in housing demand.
Across the country there was an urban housing shortage of 19 million housing units last year. According to government estimates this is expected to double by 2030. The construction sector has contributed significantly to economic growth and this is likely to continue over the next couple of years. As per some real estate consultants, despite an increase in prices, home sales in seven largest cities increased by over 36% over the last quarter. With this increased housing demand, this is the right time for the government to take steps to improve the quality of construction across the country. Improved construction quality will automatically lead to an increase in wages of construction workers along with a substantial increase in the size of the construction industry.
Ranjit Sabikhi is an architect and urban designer. He was formerly a Professor of Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi.
