Friday, 30 August 2019

GreNo: Panchsheel Hynish residents living in nightmare instead of 'dream home'

The residents of  Panchsheel Hynish, a highrise located in Sector 1 of Greater Noida, live in fear after two elevator malfunctioning cases took place in a span of a week.





On August 15, a lift in tower 7 had fallen from the 10th floor and landed into the basement, luckily no causality was reported. As a consequence, residents nowadays avoid to take the lift and instead, opt for the staircase.

A resident said, “A family had just stepped out of the lift on the 10th floor when the doors closed and the lift fell."

Not even two weeks after the incident, another lift malfunctioning was witnessed on August 27, when three children boarded the lift and got stuck in it. CitySpidey accessed the CCTV footage of the incident in which the kids are seen in panic after they realise that the lift was trembling. Soon, they started pressing buttons and luckily, the doors of the lift opened, though not in alignment to the floor, and children ran out. The CCTV footage shows that out of three, two kids fall on their faces while stepping out from the lift.

As per the residents, there is no elevator maintenance agreement (AMC) or testing stickers in the lift.

Over 700 families who live in this residential society are not only facing safety threats but several other problems like, lack of security, strays rooming around, unhygienic living conditions, water-logging in the society, no sewage and water treatment plant, and no firefighting equipments. 

The residents alleged that the developer has used a low-cost material because of which several incidents of chunks of plaster dropping from the ceiling have been reported.

The residents occupy 10 towers while two other towers are still in under-construction.

Safety secondary attitude of society’s management



(Left) Garbage lying on ground; (Right) A stray dog roaming in the building was captured on CCTV

While the management takes Rs 1.9 per square feet plus GST for maintenance charge, it doesn’t provide services for that value of money. There are very few security guards who don’t stop or question anyone.

The guards are often drunk and misbehave with residents including females, and pick fights with the occupants, claimed residents.

The management also demands to deposit six months maintenance charge in advance that too with GST, a resident alleged.

“There is no functional body like Apartment Owner’s Association (AOA) or Resident Welfare Association (RWA) to raise the issues of the residents. Whatever problems we have raised is done through individual initiative," Akash (name changed), a resident said.

“We had no CCTV in the society and in spite of raising several requests, the management directly told the residents that they have no budget to install CCTV," Akash added.

Hence, residents of all occupied towers contributed money and installed the camera in every lift and floor of all the 10 towers and have been maintaining the footage of them too, another resident added.



The stray dogs can be seen roaming in the hallways of lower floors, displacing the garbage and delivery packages, “The children are so afraid of them that no one goes out to play in the passageway”, a resident told our reporter.

At times the dogs even enter our homes if the door is not closed for some reason, Shweta (name changed), a resident said.

When we complain about the dog menace, we are told that the security guards cannot do anything about the dogs, she added.

The society has no tested firefighting equipments, in fact, the sprinkler machine is also non-functional.

Green belt turned parking space

The green belt as per the approved map has now been converted into a parking space, as a result, the area around the main gate is accident-prone since children play or cycle around it.

Electricity load share

The resident also alleged that the developer provides buys less electricity because of which there is an overload and often appliances get damaged.

The maintenance also denies to keep the lights on during evening hours, because they are aware that the consumption is far greater than what is bought, a resident of tower 2 said.

Waterlogging problems, garbage disposal



(Left) 2000 TDS water is supplied to flush tanks; (Right) Once a week the garbage rooms in the basement is cleaned.

The basement is flooded with water during the monsoon and there is a leakage in the motor pump which also adds to the problem.

The service roads through which one can enter into the society is also waterlogged. Usually, at least 2 feet water gets collected during monsoon.

In every tower, there is a garbage disposal site through which the resident can throw their garbage which then directly gets accumulated in a room in the basement. But, the garbage is only taken away only once in a week or in 15 days because of which a harsh stink lingers around the society.

Swati (name changed), a resident told our reporter that earlier the doors of the garbage room were kept locked. But nowadays they are left open and the strays come and displace the garbage everywhere.

Many residents park their car in the basement and it is here around each corner where a dump of waste can be seen, she added.

Note: No resident of the society wished to be named because according to them the maintenance head and his staff misbehave with them.