Ahmedabad civic body tears down 25 illegal rooftop structures

AHMEDABAD: On Monday civic officials went on a demolition drive of illegal structures on terraces. A team demolished an illegal terrace tuition class at Allen Career Institute.
This institute was not alone. Illegal structures on terraces were demolished in five coaching institutes including Paris Classes of Dariyapur, Kido Tuitions in Vijay Park in Naroda, Sanman Complex Classes in Vastrapur.
Illegal structures on terraces of six schools were also demolished, like Nelson in Maninagar which had classrooms on the terrace, Chandramauli school in Vejalpur, Agrasen and Maharaishi Sandipani schools in Naroda, and Vidyanagar school in Bapunagar.
Several structures on terraces — belonging to restaurants, hospitals, schools and guesthouses at 25 locations with false roofs were demolished by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
At Sigma Business Centre in Bodakdev, authorities were baffled to find a thick foam stuffed between two fibreglass sheets as the roof. This was designed to be a tinderbox. Six hospitals had occupied their terraces too with false roofs. They included the Apple Hospital in Ellisbridge, Neha and Sneh hospitals in Maninagar.
Terrace structures were demolished in four restaurants which included the Blue Roof Top on CG Road, Goras Southland near Subhash Bridge, Khaudra Point in Bapunagar, Gangotri Hotel opposite Civil Hospital among others.
A few hotel owners pointed out that for food licences under the new Food Safety and Standards Act , building use permission is not required as earlier mandated under the BPMC Act.
“AMC is very clear. If an occupant of a building produces a Fire NOC issued by us, but is defaulting on the conditions of the NOC at the time of inspection, we will seal the building,” says municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra.
The AMC has issued 2,952 show-cause notices to building managements in the last three days for allegedly violating fire safety provisions. Nehra claimed that he also made it clear to a representation from the Tuition Classes Association that they will not be allowed to operate unless fire NOC conditions are met.