The metal railings of the balconies are only about 2 feet high and can be easily climbed by children. Moreover, there are no safety nets.
This picture has been used for representational purposes only
After a five-year-old boy Rudransh, lost his life today by accidentally falling off the balcony of a fifth floor apartment in KW Srishti Society, residents of this Raj Nagar Extension society are blaming the builder and the Ghaziabad Development Authority.
Residents told City Spidey that apart from the parents, the builder and the GDA are responsible for the boy’s death. “The metal railings of the balconies are only about 2 feet high and can be easily climbed by children. Residents have raised several complaints with the GDA and the builder about increasing the height of the railings. However, nothing has been done,” said Praveen Pradhan, a resident of the society.
According to the National Building Code of India (2016), “Parapet walls and handrails provided on the edges of roof terraces, balconies, verandahs, etc, shall not be less than 1.0 m and not more than 1.2 m in height, from the finished floor level.”
According to the National Building Code of India, the guardrail of the flats must be higher than 3.2ft. Residents had also demanded that safety nets be installed after every four floors. This is because often construction materials fall down from the higher floors (which are under construction).
Sudhir Tyagi, owner of the second floor balcony where the boy had fallen said that he had raised several demands for installation of safety nets but the builder had paid no heed. “Once a hammer had fallen down from the higher floors. Another time a brick cutting tool had fallen. It barely missed my son who was in the balcony at that time. Had the nets been installed, Rudransh would have lived,” Tyagi rued. Residents said that they had also approached officials of the GDA, who too had not paid any heed.
The builder could not be contacted as several calls to the maintenance team went unanswered.
