Over 200 families of serving and retired defence personnel and others who reside in as many apartments of Chander Kunj Towers of Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO) on Silversand island in Vyttila wake up to distressing sights each day.
They include floor tiles popping up and concrete chunks having fallen or waiting to tumble from beams, ceiling, slabs, and pillars/columns of the structures that were built in 2016. A walk on the premises shows severely corroded steel bars staring at people from almost all floors, with their concrete having fallen off. Duct tape has been lavishly used to fasten tiles that are on the verge of falling from many walls.
“The situation is getting worse as days pass by, and people might soon have to walk around wearing helmet for fear of concrete and cement blocks falling on them,” says Col. (Retd.) Ciby George, a civil engineering graduate who served in the Corps of Engineers, as he showed The Hindu around the damaged areas on the 4.28-acre premises.
Faced with the alleged inaction on the part of AWHO and other stakeholders, a section of residents have decided to intensify their agitation seeking measures to evacuate the families to rebuild the pair of 29-floor structures or compensate them with interest.
“I moved into the C-tower in 2018 and soon after noticed that there were new cracks almost every day either within my apartment or of others, in stairways and in the basement parking area,” Mr. George said. With repair works yielding little results, the opinion of an international consultancy firm was sought. It came up with two reports that cast doubts on their credibility. Expert opinion was then sought from IIT-Madras and the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, between 2020 and 2022, he added.
Their reports pointed to serious flaws in the construction of the structures and hinted at use of sub-quality water and/or sand as a source of chlorides that corroded the steel bars. The continued occupation of these buildings is a serious threat to the life of residents and is highly risky. The structural corrosion is so severe that carrying out repairs would be challenging. Immediate evacuation must be done of residents of towers B and C, the reports say.
The matter was referred to the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), after the issue was taken up with the District Collector. This was followed by technical inspections by engineers of the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) and the Thripunithura municipality, which cited chloride content many times the permitted level and poor quality control as among the reasons for the structural corrosion.
The municipality’s engineer went on to say, “It is highly impractical and uneconomical to plan retrofitting. Capacity of shear walls is much less than the demand under lateral loading. This pointed to reduced capacity of earthquake resistance.”
Kargil veteran Col. (Retd.) C.M. Unnithan who invested ₹80 lakh for his apartment said the rampant cracks in the apartments and the basement getting flooded during rains spoke of the “unprofessional approach” of AWHO and “mismanagement”. “No amount of effort to play down flaws in their construction will succeed. AWHO must demolish and rebuild or return my money with interest as per the RERA Act, 2016,” he added.
“Soon after I moved in during 2018, I noticed loosening of tiles within the apartment and foul odour,” said Lizy Cherian, who served as nursing officer in the Army. “In addition, water began to trickle through porous walls during rains. I had to spend ₹3 lakh on repair works alone. Most people like me invested our hard-earned money here with the hope of leading a peaceful retired life. AWHO must do justice by rebuilding the battered structures,” she said.
