Uttar Pradesh: Structural audit of high-rises in Noida approved

Noida: The Noida authority board on Saturday approved a proposal for structural audit of high-rise buildings, according to an official statement.  

The decision was taken during the 207th board meeting of the Noida Authority held at its office in Sector 6 here.  

The meeting was chaired by UP Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner and Noida Authority chairman Arvind Kumar with Noida Authority chief executive officer Ritu Maheshwari in presence.  

In relation to structural audit of multi-storey buildings located in the authority area, it stated "the structural policy was prepared by the Noida Authority on the demand of flat buyers and AOA, in which the Structural Audit Policy has been approved by the Authority Board with partial modifications". 

"According to this policy, the structural audit report from empaneled IIT or NIT or expert institutions will be submitted by the developer before the partial or full occupancy certificate is issued," according to the statement.

It stated that even after the issuance of partial or full occupancy certificate, in any project, if 25 per cent or more allottees of AOA (apartment owners' association) or tower complain about structural defects, the committee constituted at the authority level will examine the complaint and decide whether the structural defect is of minor category or comes under major category.  

"For structural defects of major category, structural audit will be conducted from expert institutions. Under the Apartment Ownership Act, it is the responsibility of the builder to remove the structural defects for two years," it stated.

"According to the RERA Act, the responsibility of removing the structural defects rests with the builder for five years and after five years with the AOA. This period will be calculated after the issue of occupancy certificate of the entire scheme," according to the statement.  

At present, it has been decided by the Board that if the structural audit report comes negative, then the structural defects will be removed by the builder within five years from the date of issue of occupancy, it stated.

In the cases of two to five years period, the authority will inform the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) to get the action taken by the builder to rectify the deficiencies found after getting the audit done by the empaneled agency, it added.