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Ahmedabad builders do the vanishing act

Dilip Gohil in Ahmedabad

The irony of the earthquake in Ahmedabad is that while old and seemingly dilapidated buildings survived the tremors, the new flashy high-rise buildings came crashing down.

Around 50 such ten-storyed buildings collapsed in newly-developed areas of Satellite, Vastrapur and Vejalpur. Builders, who sold dreams though their glossy brochures, have now done a vanishing act.

Residents of some of these building have filed police complaints. Ahmedabad Mayor Himmatsinh Patel said Thursday that the corporation has sealed the documents of these buildings. Also a sample of debris has been sent to the Gujarat Engineering and Research Institute to verify whether the right kind of construction materials were used.

Six offences have already been registered by the police against builders, developers, architects and even officials of the municipal corporation and the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, who passed the plans.

In Sola police station, a complaint was lodged against the builder of Surabhi Apartment, which came down killing 24 residents. Builders Girish Patel and Vinubhai Patel, plan engineer C K Daftari and architect Surendra Parmar were booked Thursday under Sections 304 (culpable homicide) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

Others builders booked under the same offences are Kantilal Patel of Ranna Park in Ghatalodia; Anjan Parikh and Piyush Dani of Shruti Apartment in Navrangpura; Bharat and Bhadresh Trivedi of Vidyalaxmi Apartment in Sabarmati, Amit Pothia of Sundervan Apartment in Ranip and Manubhai Patel and Tushar Patel of Shivalay in Naranpura.

Initially, the police were reluctant to lodge complaints as they were not sure under which offence the builders could be booked. However after angry residents protested and met the police commissioner, the police have started registering complaints.

More complaints are likely from the affected areas like Satellite, Paladi, Vasana and Maninagar.

Many builders are not traceable. Their offices are closed and even at home nobody is to be found.

The builder of 10-storyed Mansi Apartment, which collapsed on the very first day killing down 50 persons, Manubhai Vyas has not dared to visit the site. Even his office on Ashram Road is closed.

Rakesh Shah and Nirav Shah of Jai Estated Developer have also disappeared. Three five-storyed buildings constructed by them collapsed killing more than 70. Their office in Maninagar is locked.

State Home Minister Haren Pandya said that the government has also received many complaints against certain builders. "We will not spare anybody and cases of faulty construction will be thoroughly investigated," he promised.

The Complete Coverage | List of earthquake sites

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