In order to prevent children and residents from toppling over from multi-storied buildings, the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) has issued a set of safety guidelines for all residents welfare associations (RWAs) and building owners in New Town.
The safety guidelines are applicable in all three Action Areas of New Town, a senior official of NKDA said on Wednesday.
The decision to issue the guidelines was taken at a meeting following an accident inside a New Town housing complex, in which a two-year-old boy had slipped and fallen to his death through a gap in the grille of the balcony of their fifth floor flat in April at Clubtown Courtyard, opposite City Centre II.
In another incident a day later, a techie in his 30s who used to stay with his mother on a 14th floor apartment on rent allegedly jumped out of a grille-less window.
According to a senior NKDA official, the set of guidelines has around five to six points and will be sent through emails as well as handed out to residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) over the next few days.
The RWAs that act as monitors of a housing complex have been asked to “closely observe and ensure where ever possible” the installation of child safety locks on windows that are either fitted with iron grilles or are not fitted with those.
Two floors of an apartment at Clubtown Gateway, of which the upper floor verandah has had taller grilles installed while the one below has the original one retained. It is as low as the one through which the child fell
Sourced by The TelegraphSeveral apartments in multi-storeyed buildings in New Town don't have iron grills installed outside because they provide an avenue of escape in case of fire where firemen can bring residents out using hydraulic ladders.
Such windows also offer uninterrupted view from highrises and are often coveted by residents. Vikas Soni, a developer who builds large cooperative housing complexes, said extra fitments like iron grilles and child-proof windows come at an extra cost. “In most buildings that are higher than eight storeys, residents want to keep at least a couple of windows that offer them views.
In many cases they also install seating areas near the windows and don't want their views to get interrupted by iron work. It is completely upto the residents if they want to install grilles on them," said Soni.
A senior NKDA official also said that they were aware that in many highrises across the city installation of iron grilles is not made mandatory for this reason. Families which have children in the house, they advise, should opt for windowpanes that are installed with some form of child- proof lock and the residents themselves should also take care not to leave any child unattended near an easily climbable window that can be opened easily.
A window at Eden Court where the top pane can be slid open
Sourced by The TelegraphOn April 26, two-year-old Susmit Biswas, who was reportedly playing by himself in the balcony of their fifth floor flat, had managed to climb onto the grille and fell through a large gap meant to hold flower pots.
On April 27, Rajarshi Dutta, a 34-year-old techie, died after jumping through the window of a 14th floor apartment of Eden Court complex in New Town on Thursday morning. He was suffering from depression since the death of his father six months ago.
The flat where Susmit Biswas used to stay had an iron grille on the balcony. However it had been designed in a way to hold flowerpots and has large circular gaps meant to accommodate them. The grille is around 3 feet in height and the boy had somehow climbed onto it and had possibly slipped through an empty circular gap that did not have a flower pot in it, a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate said.
According to NKDA officials, the guidelines that issued are expected to be followed by the RWAs and they will also issue a set of guidelines for the new buildings that are coming up in all three sectors of New Town.
For the balconies, porches and other common areas including large balconies or fore reduce points on the facades of the buildings the NKDA will ask both builders of new buildings as well as RWAs of older ones to ensure that there is a perimeter guard running around them at an adequate height.“As these areas are specifically and mainly designed to act as shelter areas for fire we understand that erecting high walls can be a problem. These act as assembly and evacuation zones for the residents to step out of the flats and wait for rescuers during a fire. In these places the guard walls cannot be made too high but it is advisable to have a perimeter boundary of an adequate height to prevent anyone from tipping over and falling down," the official said.
The authorities have also asked for regular maintenance checks on windows and ledges as well as installation of warning signage in all “exposed” common areas like fire rescue balconies, porches and roof areas of a building.
“The incident that claimed the life of a two-year-old boy is extremely unfortunate and we will also hold a series of meetings with representatives from RWAs regarding safety of their residents regarding windows and balconies of their flats as well as common areas,” said the official.
“Our original grille that the developer had installed was waist high. Since we deemed it risky even for adults, we installed higher grilles. But half of the 80-odd families that have moved into our 190-apartment complex still have retained the original low grille,” said Arkaprava Bhar, a resident of Clubtown Gateway, where the child fell to his death.
