Patna, Feb. 1: People who have booked flats in the upcoming apartments on the dry riverbed of the Ganga between Durja and Digha could be affected by the order of the civic body to stop construction.

According to the order of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), work must be stopped at all the eight under-construction buildings in the area. Eagle Apartment near Rajapur, where all the 42 flats are inhabited, is also under the corporation’s scanner.

Sources said a vigilance inquiry would soon be initiated to check if the projects have followed the norms laid down by the Bihar Municipal Act, 2007. The order issued by PMC commissioner cites Ganga pollution and the durability of the upcoming constructions as reasons for the decision, taken after a meeting of the civic body officials on January 25.

“The riverbed is not fit for construction of high-rise buildings. Also, sewage and drainage water from these buildings will be directly released into Ganga,” said PMC commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pal.

Not all construction has stopped after the civic body order. When The Telegraph visited some of the construction sites today, labourers were busy at work. One of the sites where the work was on was Braj Nandan Apartments near Rajapur — a project of Nutan Constructions. Sanjay Kumar Singh, the owner of the construction company, however, denied that any work was on.

“After the PMC order, we have completely stopped work,” he said.

Residents and prospective buyers of the buildings are in a quandary. They are unhappy with the PMC order.

“What were they (PMC officials) doing till now? We have been living here for so long. Why don’t they stop construction of buildings at the time of approval so that people like us do not suffer later?” said Musarrat Malik, owner of a flat in Eagle Apartments.

The civic body is, however, planning to dig up how these building plans were sanctioned. “We have formed a 15-member committee to see how the maps were approved,” said Pal.

The committee, headed by PMC chief engineer Ramswarath Singh, will submit its report within a month. Among other things, it will check whether architects registered with PMC have flouted norms. “Architects have also been served notices to explain how they approved the maps,” said the commissioner. The fire services department, too, will be asked to check whether these projects have proper fire-fighting arrangements or not.

All the identified nine apartment complexes are in the New Capital Circle of PMC. Flats in these apartments are priced between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000 per sqft. The civic body has directed New Capital Circle executive engineer to ensure no new building maps are approved near Ganga and its embankment in the northern part of the state capital.