Noida to engage private consultants for safety audit of old buildings

The Noida authority has decided to rope in private consultants who will help in carrying out the structural audit for buildings’ safety, as demanded by apartment owners.
Earlier it had authorised only government agencies including Delhi Technological University; IIT Kanpur; Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNIT) Allahabad; BITS Pilani; AMU Aligarh, MNIT Jaipur, and Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Roorki, as expert agencies to carry out the safety audit and then issue safety certificate for the housing towers’ structures.
The decision has come after the authority realised that these government agencies are overburdened with the academic work, and finds little time for the safety audit of building structures. As a result, the safety audit of buildings’ structure gets delayed, delaying the whole process.
According to the chief executive officer (CEO), Noida authority, Lokesh M, they decided to allow the private expert agencies or experts to get the safety audit completed in stipulated timelines.
“The government agencies, which are expert of this kind do not find required time for this job,” he added.
The Noida authority will soon issue expression of interest (EOI) and finalise the agencies, which will be work on this project.
According to the guidelines approved by the Noida authority in 2023, if a building is five years or more old, the Apartment Owners’ Association (AOA) will bear the cost of safety audit by enlisting an expert agency and also pay for the cost, if any, that needs to be spent to boost the structure.
There are at least 1,200 high-rise housing towers in Noida and most of these buildings are older than five years, according to the authority.
But the safety audit will only be carried out in the buildings, where the demand will be raised by AOA supported by over 70 percent of the apartment owners. The authority is likely to issue EOI and empanel the private expert agencies in next one or two months, said officials.
Besides, if the building is less than 5 years old then the authority will ask the developer to pay the cost of the audit by private expert agencies.