TNHB residents decline to take over maintenance

By S. Shanker

CHENNAI, MARCH 28. Residents of a Housing Board scheme in K.K. Nagar here have refused to take over the maintenance of their blocks from the TNHB for the last one year, protesting deficiencies in their apartments.

The Resident Welfare Association complains that their units were not in accordance with the `salient features' advertised at the time of the sale and even civil works, such as wall plastering and flooring lacked quality finish. Many water and sewerage pipelines were leaking and outer walls in some of the blocks had developed hairline and blister cracks, despite the units being only three years old.

The president of the association - Golden Jubilee Apartments Welfare Association - Mr. P. Srinivasan said each block had 30 flats and of the 180 flats in blocks, 134 had been sold so far. They had refused to take over the general maintenance of the apartments from the TNHB as they wanted the Board to set right the defects.

Each apartment, of approximately 100 sqmetres, was remitting Rs. 300 to the Board as maintenance charges. They were sold the property for prices upwards of Rs.11 lakhs, depending on the payment mode.

Mr. Srinivasan said there was no enclosed car park on the ground floor and a developed park in the area as advertised. In fact the association had protested and stalled sale of the covered car park area within each of the blocks. About four cars could be accommodated in the vacant ground floor of each block.

There were undulations in the flooring of some units especially, wherever ceramic tiles were laid. The electrical switches were of substandard quality and the conduit pipes for cable and telephone lines were ``blocked'', he said.

The Housing Board Managing Director, Mr.N.Vasudevan, said the maintenance amount remitted to the Board could not take care of preventive and periodical maintenance of the building. While galvanised pipes were prone to rust, clearing choked PVC lines with iron or steel rods resulted in damage to them. The maintenance charges took care of the water supply operations and other common amenities and as such it was insufficient to carry out repair works.

Board officials said ample space was available for the car park inside the premises and they would examine the viability of constructing a compound wall on the rear side of the units as quite a few houses bordering them had already constructed compound walls. The `cost finalisation' of the scheme did not include the wall cost, they added.

Assuring that the Board would issue instructions to develop the park and take up patch-up work of the inner roads within the premises, the MD said the resident welfare association should be ready to take care of it, once completed.

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Section  : Southern States
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