VIJAYAWADA: Dilapidated buildings, under the scanner of City Town planning department under VMC, especially in monsoon, are back in news again after boulders fell on the residential area at Moghalrajapuram. The joint actions of town planning and engineering department are ringing the bells in hearts of the owners of the old and dilapidated houses in the city.
Most of the houses built long time back are in a dilapidated condition and the old buildings pose a constant threat to lives of both the inhabitants and neighbours, said K. Srinivas, a resident of One Town, who has a dilapidated building standing adjacent to his house. According to rules, VMC will send notices under 4578 of HMC Act, 1955, section 231 of APM Act, 1956 to the owner/occupier/tenant asking them to carry out the repairs or demolish the structure depending upon the structural stability certificate.
The demolition notice would be issued under section 456 of HMC Act and section 231 of APM Act if the owner fails to carry out repair or demolition. As per survey in 2014 by the town planning department, nearly 180 houses were marked in the city in various places, but only 16 were demolished. And the remaining were left untouched.
Nearly 120 dilapidated houses in One Town are spotted and remaining 60 are from various parts of the city like Moghalrajapuram, Gunadala, Krishna Lanka and Satynarapuram. This year, the town planning department did not mark even a single dilapidated house in the city .
“We did not survey dilapidated buildings in the city for this year, as we are full with the works of desiltation and BPS. Once these works are completed, we will start surveying," said City Planner S. Chakrapani. He requested denizens to make repairs as suggested by engineers and demolish the house if it is in a real dangerous state. But the house owners are reluctant to act on the issue and running for alternate options like NOC and structure certificate from civil engineers, to bypass the issues.
