Ghaziabad: 78 ‘illegally occupied’ flats vacated in Kaushambi

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) earlier this week freed up and sealed 78 of its unsold duplex flats in Gangotri Tower, located in Kaushambi Township near Ghaziabad-Delhi border, officials said on Saturday, adding that the unsold inventory will now be taken up for maintenance and sold in auction.

Located at a prime location near Ghaziabad’s border with Delhi, the tower includes about 440 flats, including the 78 unsold ones, they said.

“The GDA teams, after identifying the issue, served notice for an immediate evacuation, and finally the flats were freed up and sealed in the presence of GDA and police officers. The towers were being used by unidentified people and who used to come at night mostly. The items recovered from about 40 flats were seized and the flats were finally sealed,” said Rudresh Shukla, assistant engineer and media coordinator, GDA.

Officials said that they will check if any legal action has been initiated by the GDA against unauthroised occupants.

“Officials have directed that the flats will undergo maintenance, and they will be refurbished. We expect that the cost of each flat is about ₹20-25 lakh. Once the maintenance is over, these will be sold in auction to get additional revenue for the authority. Local residents complained to the GDA about the issues and these will be reviewed,” Shukla added.

Officials said that the Gangotri Tower was developed in 1989. Local residents complained about the prevailing issues to the authority that led to the official action.

“The vagabonds and many involved in drugs, alcoholism etc, often break locks and occupy these flats as and when they desire. The tower is marked by many civic issues including disposal of garbage, sewerage and also of safety issues to genuine residents living here. The area has a presence of liquor shops nearby. So, people and even the original allottees do not prefer to live here. What is more surprising is that the authority over so many years has failed to notice these issues,” said VK Mittal, former president, Kaushmabi apartments’ RWA.

“The GDA so far has not given us any police complaint against the illegal occupants who were staying in the tower. During the evacuation and seizure, we provided them with the police force,” said Nimish Patil, deputy commissioner of police (trans-Hindon).