Mumbai: Falling glass sheets from Dadar building risk neighbours' lives

Scared residents of Dwarka Bhavan and Kesar Polaris, including former India cricketer, complain about the shaky glass balconies to developer, local police

Glass-paned balconies in the Kesar Polaris building in Dadar's Hindu Colony have become a nagging pain for its residents and their neighbours. While the residents allege the balcony decks have been fitted wrongly, their neighbours from the Dwarka Bhavan building have written to the police about glass from the balconies crashing into their compound. Despite all of this, the developers have rubbished allegations, stating that they have installed glass made out of good material.

The security guards of the building and a few members of the housing society said the glass sheets have fallen from several top floors many times and they've informed the society office bearers and the developers about the incidents.

According to the residents, a meeting was also held with the developer to discuss a permanent solution to this problem. The developer agreed to repair the railings of the common amenities, but said individual flat owners should take up the responsibility of fixing their glass balconies. The residents further said they'd personally incur an estimated expense of about Rs 90,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh for replacing the glass panes, which would not be affordable for senior citizens who have got flats in the building after it was redeveloped.

Residents of the neighbouring Dwarka Bhavan building wrote to the cops last month about glass from balconies crashing into their compound. Pics/Suresh KK

Whose responsibility is it?

Former cricketer Raju Kulkarni, who resides in the building, has also raised his voice against this issue, which has been allegedly persistent for the last three years. Speaking to mid-day, he said, "It is completely unacceptable of the developer to not take the responsibility to fix the manufacturing defect. What if I am taking a stroll in the compound and the glass falls? What if some untoward incident takes place and affects the passersby? Who will take the responsibility?

I got to know about this after I recently moved into this building and I've immediately taken up this issue because the neighbouring society has also raised their concerns. The replacement charges are very high and while some can afford it, there are senior citizens cannot. More importantly, why should the residents bear the price of his [the developer's] wrong doing? Fixing it after an accident happens is useless."

Former cricketer Raju Kulkarni said this problem has been persistent for the past three years

He also said, "According to the letters exchanged between the society and developer in 2017, the society had raised the issue of the glass panes falling off, saying it needed immediate attention, but nothing was done back then too." Kulkarni said a former security guard told him 15 to 17 such instances have occurred since the building's possession was given to the members. He said whenever the site supervisor was around, he would replace the broken glass without letting anyone know.

Amol Tipnis, another resident said, "Whenever there was any incident, the supervisors or contractor's men who were around used to replace the broken glass sheets. Fortunately, no one has been injured ever, but glass sheets have broken. I had to get a temporary shed fixed because there was always a fear of glass pieces falling. A few months ago, broken pieces of a glass sheet also fell into my neighbour's balcony. We are talking to the developer and asking him to fix this."

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The glass panes from the balconies have fallen several times over the past few years.

Neighbours write to cops

Worried residents of the neighbouring building have gone a step further by sharing their concerns with the Matunga police on March 10. Chandan Parulkar, secretary, of the neighbouring Dwarka Bhavan said, "One incident happened at night time last month and luckily, no children were playing outside, but our security guards sit just few steps away from where the glass fell; that was a cause of our worry. When we inquired with the security guards of Kesar Polaris, they said this has happened in the past as well."

"Thus, we wrote to the society to ensure safety measures are taken as it is a threat to our safety, especially our kids and security guards. We've also verbally told the developer's supervisors who are working on other projects in the vicinity, but there was no response from them. But Kesar Polaris employees have informed me verbally that they're working on a solution. As an intimation, I've already sent the same letter to the Matunga Police as well," he said.

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Developers say

Aditya Gogari, joint managing director of the Kesar group remained unavailable for comment. Aditi Rane from his team, who said she handles the legal matters, said, "Whatever complaint was made in the past was a minor one, which was immediately rectified. When the handover procedure took place with the society members, the building was in a good condition and nothing was brought to our knowledge at the time."

Even now, the complaint has been received from only one resident on Tuesday, and not by the managing committee of the society. If someone does some work in their balcony or their house and there is a maintenance issue, how is that our responsibility? We got the OC in 2014. The glass is of good quality and it is unlikely for it to be a problem for everyone. The neighbouring building, which has also been constructed by us, has a similar structure but we've received no complaints from them so far."

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