Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO) managing director Maj. Gen. Vikal Sahni (Retd.) visited Chander Kunj towers of AWHO on Silversand Island in Vyttila recently and held a meeting with residents and their representatives to answer their queries and apprehensions about the ‘restoration work’ that the organisation had agreed to do.
An office-bearer of the residents’ welfare association said it was a ‘healthy discussion’, and that the managing director had said that AWHO would do the needful to alleviate their concerns. Many attended it online.
Sources said a few apartment owners had demanded refund of the amount that they had paid to purchase apartments, with interest.
On concerns raised by a section of occupants about the structural safety of the apartment complex, AWHO said in a release that it had hired a reputed firm, Bureau Veritas India Limited (BVIL), to do a detailed non-destructive test (NDT) using specialist equipment.
AWHO is committed to executing the restoration work, as recommended by the firm, in an exhaustive report of more than 13,000 pages, and the tender for it has been issued. A few ‘allottees’ are spreading misinformation about the proposed repairs, citing the report prepared by a Professor of IIT-Madras. The report was prepared by the IIT-Madras Professor “at the behest of a few allottees and is the outcome of just a couple of hours of visual inspection.” It is being cited ignoring the report that BVIL conducted over six months.
False and malicious information being spread by a few allottees through the media about orders of immediate evacuation of Towers B and C and even likely demolition of these towers are not true. The matter is sub judice in the Kerala High Court owing to the writ petition filed by Col. Ciby George (Retd). AWHO would start the restoration work once the court or the civil administration gave the go-ahead. The evacuation of the flats, if required, will be carried out as per the plan of the firm that would execute the restoration work, it says.