For under a year now, issues of the structural stability of a housing complex at Saligramam has grabbed the attention of the city. Residents complained first, in August 2023, of how a portion of the ceiling at WestMinster apartments collapsed. That fixed the attention of the community on the apartment complex and Studies proved that very poor quality construction had led to this sorry state.
Jain Housing and Constructions Limited (JHCL) has recently informed the Madras High Court of its intention to raze all three 17-storey residential towers, housing more than 600 apartment units, at Jains WestMinster Apartments (JWA) since they have been declared unsafe to reside, owing to chloride erosion.
The realtor has decided to redevelop the land by constructing taller towers with more flats within three years from the date of evacuation of the inhabitants and then allot flats to the existing owners without any change in the size of the flats they own or their undivided share on the land.
Rental accommodation
The builder has further proposed to assist all 472 flat owners in finding rental accommodation, until the completion of re-development, and pay a monthly rent at the rate of ₹15 per square foot, besides giving them the rent for six months in advance for being remitted as security deposit with the landlords concerned.
The proposal has been submitted before the court which is seized of a writ petition filed by Jains WestMinster Owners Welfare Association (JWOWA) in 2022 for a direction to the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) to inspect the structural quality of the towers and permit repairs.
When the case was pending, JHCL requested Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) to assess the condition of JWA and suggest a durable repair strategy. Accordingly, a team led by Professor Radhakrishna G. Pillai inspected the towers, which had deteriorated within five to seven years of construction, in September 2023. A detailed structural investigation revealed that the chloride level in the slab concrete was significantly higher than what had been specified in the Indian Standard Code of Practice (456) and the source of such chloride could be the water used for mixing and curing of concrete.
Cracking and spalling
The team also found that most of the slabs in towers A and B showed significant cracking and spalling, resulting from the corrosion of underlying steel. Delamination of the concrete and dropping in chunks was found to be a serious hazard. After engaging the services of Kerala Highway Research Institute to conduct field and laboratory tests, the experts concluded that the safety of the occupants and the longevity of all the three towers were under a serious threat and therefore they must be demolished after evacuating the residents immediately.
Appearing before the fourth Division Bench of Justices S.S. Sundar and N. Senthilkumar, senior counsel Vijay Narayan and advocate Naveen Kumar Murthi, representing JHCL and its Directors, told the court that re-development was the only possible solution and that buyback or refund of money could not be carried out at all.
Counsel presented a re-development plan for demolishing all buildings at JWA and constructing taller towers using the present increase in Floor Space Index (FSI). The increase in the FSI would lead to the saleable area getting increased to 8.6 lakh square feet as against the existing 7.4 lakh square feet, they said. Therefore, the builder would construct 660-690 flats at a cost of ₹236.50 crore. Further, it would require ₹5.16 crore to pay the security deposit (six months’ rent) to accommodate the existing flat-owners on rent elsewhere and another ₹25.83 crore to pay the rent for the rest of 30 months.
After adding ₹25 crore towards overheads, counsel said, the total liability would come to ₹292.49 crore, of which the builder would be able to recover ₹120 crore by conveying the additional saleable area of 1.20 lakh square feet due to the increased FSI and suffer a loss of ₹172.49 crore.
Stating that JHCL had developed more than 250 projects but this was the first time that an unfortunate and unexpected issue of chloride erosion had arisen, Mr. Narayan said the realtor was committed to pumping in ₹172.49 crore by liquidating its assets and obtaining construction finance and through other means.
He also stated that it would be the obligation of the builder to ensure safe demolition of the towers, obtain a revised approval from the authorities for the re-development, ensure quality re-construction within the specified time and pay rent to the existing flat-owners till the new flats were handed over to them.
Counsel assured the court that updates on the progress of the construction would be shared with the flat-owners at regular intervals and they would be given access to quality check reports, besides being provided with all information related to the project right from the date of commencement of demolition.
Listing the obligations on the part of the flat-owners, he said they would have to execute a general power of attorney to facilitate the revised approval and for obtaining power, water and sewerage connections. They would also have to vacate the premises before a specified date and take away all their belongings.
However, the builder’s proposal was not acceptable to JWOWA as well as a few individual flat-owners who had got impleaded in the case. Representing them, senior counsel S. Prabakaran wondered how the undivided share of the existing flat-owners would remain unchanged despite an increase in the saleable area due to the increased FSI.
When the judges too raised the doubt, Mr. Narayan explained that the builder had more than 130 unsold units in the existing towers and the undivided share for those flats remained with the builder. Therefore, the purchasers of the new flats would be offered a lesser undivided share than the existing flat-owners, he said.
“We will make it very clear to the new purchasers that they will get only a lesser UDS. Those who are agreeable to it can go ahead and purchase,” he said and pointed out that the total land area of JWA was 1,86,632 square feet, of which the area earmarked for Open Space Reserve (OSR) worked out to 18,680 square feet.
After giving away 2,102 square feet for road widening works, the exact amount of land available for conveyance was 1,65,848 square feet of which approximately 1,29,000 square feet had already been sold to the existing flat owners and the balance of 36,848 square feet remained with the builder, the senior counsel said.
The unsold UDS would be distributed among the existing unsold units as well as the additional built- up area that had been planned in view of the increased FSI and it would be conveyed to the new flat purchasers without touching the UDS that had already been sold to the existing flat owners, he told the court.
Committee to resolve problems
However, when the flat owners still refused to accept the re-development proposal and said the fixation of monthly rent at the rate of ₹15 per square feet was too low, the judges contemplated the possibility of appointing a committee comprising two retired High Court judges to solve all contentious issues. The Division Bench directed counsel representing JWOWA as well as the individual flat-owners to come up with their suggestions by March 5 on the terms of reference to be fixed for the committee. It also directed JHCL to express its stand on the issue of constituting such a committee.
Observing that the builder might have to deposit around ₹50 crore for securing rental accommodation for the 472 flat-owners, the judges directed JHCL to make an initial deposit of ₹25 crore to the credit of the present writ petition by March 4 and report to the court on March 5.
