IT king’s jacuzzi sank a high-rise

IT king’s jacuzzi sank a high-rise
DARSHAN DESAI & JOYDEEP RAY

GANDHINAGAR/AHMEDABAD, MARCH 3: Had it not been for the earthquake on January 26, businessman Hitendra Barot, among the residents of Mansi Complex, would have well been anointed Gujarat's infotech czar. Out of the rubble of the Mansi Complex is emerging details of the reason part of the 10-storeyed building crumbled, and the story of the man who would have fathered Gujarat's infotech revolution.

The earthquake pulled down the complex and scalped eight members of Barot's family, including his wife Kalpanaben. He himself sustained bruises.

Now, investigations trace the building's fall to a 25,000 litre water tank supporting a huge jacuzzi that Barot had installed. His penthouse also contained a 5,000-litre Syntex tank, apart from a common 60,000 litre overhead tank in the building.

Barot bought two penthouses on the tenth floor and two flats on the sixth and seventh floors for other family members. And on the ground floor was the office for his ambitious Infocity Project.

Barot denied the presence of any such bathing facility in his penthouse no. 1002. ``Even the common water tank of the entire building was not more than 25,000 litres, and it is impossible to construct that big a pool,'' he claimed.

``I lost eight members of my family in the crash, do you think I would put my family and myself to such risk? You can still check on the spot, half of the building still exists,'' he added.

Police investigations, however, tell a different story. Senior Inspector of Satellite Police Station F.A. Gohil and a team of the Forensic Science Laboratory, led by Dr M.S. Dahia, have recovered three types of tiles from the debris: blue and green coloured ones used in the bathroom in Barot's penthouses and grey tiles of the jacuzzi. The police and a team from the Delhi-based National Council for Building Material also inspected the building.

Investigations suggest that pressure from atop the building caused it to crumble. The police complaint, lodged by a Mansi resident on February 2, alleges that besides the use of sub-standard construction material, the building had six illegal penthouses and four-feet cantilevers on all four sides.

But then, Barot is no stranger to controversy. He along with his NRI brother, US-based real estate developer Dilip Barot, is steering the Infocity Project, touted by the Gujarat Government as the State's answer to Chandrababu Naidu's IT revolution. No less than Union Home Minister L.K. Advani had flagged off the project.

The Barot brothers are close to Minister of State for Information Technology Bimal Shah. Interestingly, their company, Creative Choice, was the only bidder left in a global tender floated for the Infocity Project in 1999. Just a fortnight was given to the bidders to respond; thus, only three companies could apply -- Creative Choice, Larsen and Toubro and a company with a Malaysian tie-up.

The other two companies pulled out of the project, and the Barots were eventually awarded the project. A top government source said, ``L&T may have been persuaded to pull out of the bid, though officially the reason cited is that the company's hands were full.''

To be set up on 150 acres of land, the project envisages, besides IT related infrastructure, building an international school, five star hotel, budget hotel, service apartments, shopping mall, banks, post and telegraph office, a multiplex and entertainment mall and a gymnasium.

Sources close to Minister of State for IT Bimal Shah say the project was given after due verification of the company's financial and technical strength. The verification was carried out by Price Waterhouse Cooperhouse. Shah could not be contacted.

Information technology is unchartered terrain for the Barots. They specialise in refurbishing old and dilapidated buildings in the US.

Even the signing of the Concession Agreement in July last year, the final formality before the Infocity Project took off, ran into rough weather because the company allegedly demanded major sops from the government. Barot's chief demand was that the government should give him completely free-hold land, over 150 acres, instead of a 30-year lease. This demand was turned down, but the lease period was extended by 30 years.