Six-storey building tilts in Munirka, civic body says it will be demolished
NEW DELHI: A six-storey building in front of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s north gate in south Delhi’s Munirka tilted on Thursday, leading to panic among residents, officials said.
A total of 45 tenants in the building and around 100 people living nearby were evacuated after the police were informed about the incident at 5.30 am, they said.
Teams of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), along with the sub-divisional Magistrate of the area, visited the spot, police said.
SDMC mayor Bhupinder Gupta said, “This building had figured in our ‘Dangerous Buildings Survey,’ which is held every year just before monsoons, in June 2019. The owner had been served notice and we were awaiting his reply. Now it will be demolished.”
Another south civic body officer said, “The building is about 15-20 years old and locals have told us a pipe leakage under the building flooded it, weakening the foundation. Also, it is situated in Munirka Village where nobody gets building plans sanctioned. Otherwise, we can monitor such structures better,” he said.
Just a month ago, on January 25, a four-storey building in Bhajanpura area in northeast Delhi, from which a tuition centre operated, collapsed, killing four children and one of their teachers.
Before this, on December 24 last year, a five-storeyed building tilted in Paharganj. The occupants of the building were evacuated and the structure was provided support with wooden pillars to prevent an immediate collapse.