Safety rules ignored, buildings waiting to fall like pack of cards
NEW DELHI: Despite falling under a seismically-active zone, Delhi has scant regard for structural safety and a very poor record on complying with building safety norms.
The three civic bodies in the city that are tasked with the enforcement of safety norms lack both safety and expertise to ensure that buildings that come up are able to sustain disasters and the existing ones are monitored for timely repair.
According to a survey conducted by the three municipal corporation in their jurisdictions, there are nearly 450 dangerous buildings in the city. Of these, 412 fall in north Delhi. It clearly shows massive underreporting on the part of the other two civic bodies, especially in view of the fact that they are home to several resettlement colonies illegal constructions are rampant.
The pre-monsoon building safety check by the civic bodies is a mere formality since the teams that carry out the survey don’t have the scientific means to check the structural strength of a building scientifically.
“There are around 50 lakh buildings in the city. Most of them are hardly checked for structural safety. Officials are required to carry out a check prior to the monsoon. But due to lack of manpower and equipment, the survey is just a visual check from outside the building,” said Rajesh Bhatia, member of the standing committee of the North civic body.
According to Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), 70-80% of the buildings violate safety regulations in Delhi.
In fact, a survey conducted by the Tejendra Khanna Committee set up in 2006 had also pointed that nearly 80% buildings were found structurally unfit. Officials said only two buildings identified in the survey had been retrofitted so far.