AMC to conduct a drive to ensure railings on glass windows

AHMEDABAD: In November last year, 12-year-old Ahad Sayyed crashed out of a glass facade and died while playing frisbee on the seventh floor of a hotel passageway on Ashram road. Three months after the incident, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has made it mandatory to install railings behind glass facades to avoid similar tragedies.

Interestingly, the exiting building use (BU) permissions makes it compulsory for any builder to install railings behind glass facades. But, a preliminary survey of some of the buildings in the west zone revealed that most buildings did not comply with this safety condition. After many years of neglect and lack of action by AMC's, it seemed pointless. In most cases, the property had been bought and sold several times after the builder initially sold it. The AMC now cannot blame anyone.

"During our field inspection, we approach each of the management or associations of such buildings and asked them to install railings. A dedicated drive will be carried out in two months time," says a senior AMC town planning department official.