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

Glasspaned balconies in the Kesar Polaris building in Dadars 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 materialThe 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 theyve informed the society office bearers and the developers about the incidentsAccording 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 theyd personally incur an estimated expense of about Rs 90000 to Rs 15 lakh for replacing the glass panes which would not be affordable for senior citizens who have got flats in the building after it was redevelopedResidents of the neighbouring Dwarka Bhavan building wrote to the cops last month about glass from balconies crashing into their compound PicsSuresh KKWhose responsibility is itFormer 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 midday 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 responsibilityI got to know about this after I recently moved into this building and Ive 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 developers wrong doing Fixing it after an accident happens is uselessFormer cricketer Raju Kulkarni said this problem has been persistent for the past three yearsHe 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 buildings possession was given to the members He said whenever the site supervisor was around he would replace the broken glass without letting anyone knowAmol Tipnis another resident said Whenever there was any incident the supervisors or contractors 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 neighbours balcony We are talking to the developer and asking him to fix thisAlso ReadOne killed eight injured in building collapse in ThaneThe glass panes from the balconies have fallen several times over the past few yearsNeighbours write to copsWorried 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 wellThus 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 Weve also verbally told the developers 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 theyre working on a solution As an intimation Ive already sent the same letter to the Matunga Police as well he saidAlso ReadBuilding collapses in Bhiwandi 5 rescued and 6 feared to be trappedDevelopers sayAditya 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 timeEven 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 weve received no complaints from them so farAlso ReadMumbai Underconstruction building collapses in Goregaon 3 dead 8 injuredCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates