Delhi civic body to seek structural safety certificate from PGs within fortnight

New DelhiThe Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has directed zonal authorities to mandatorily seek structural safety certificates from over 2,400 paying guest (PG) accommodations across the city in the next 15 days, senior civic officials said

New Delhi

A building collapse in Satya Niketan killed 5 DU students. (HT Archive)

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has directed zonal authorities to mandatorily seek structural safety certificates from over 2,400 paying guest (PG) accommodations across the city in the next 15 days, senior civic officials said.

A senior municipal official said that in the second phase of the exercise, following a survey in the first phase, directions have been issued to all of its 12 zones to seek structural safety certificates for 2,453 such buildings.

“The exercise found four visibly dangerous buildings and vacation notices have been issued to all of these four structures. Since most of these buildings lack approved building plans, we have asked them to get structural safety certificates. There should at least be baseline safety arrangements. Up to 15 days will be provided to the owners to complete this exercise,” the official, who did not wish to be named, said.

In an exercise mandated by the Delhi High Court in the wake of the Satya Niketan building collapse, the engineering wing had earmarked 2,453 PGs across Delhi, with maximum concentration in Civil Lines, South and Karol Bagh zone.

However, previous attempts at structural safety audits have failed. In June 2020, the three erstwhile municipal corporations had fixed a six-month deadline for obtaining a structural safety certificate for high-risk buildings and older structures, but almost six years later, only a fraction of the properties have been covered.

Compliance has also remained an issue, with only a few thousand submitting structural audit, even as Delhi has more than five million buildings, with most developed without following any regulation. The Tejendra Khanna Committee, set up in 2006 to look into various aspects of unauthorised construction and misuse of premises in the city, found that 70-80% structures had violated building norms.

On September 25, MCD submitted to the high court that building plans of only 30% of these buildings could be found; they housed more than 50,000 and comprised more than 32,000 rooms, it said. The court was hearing a batch of public interest litigations raising several concerns about regulation of PG accommodations for university students in the city, in the aftermath of a building collapse at Satya Niketan that killed seven people, including five students. The court will hear the matter next on October 14.

The MCD official said that areas around Delhi University North campus have the maximum number of PGs, at 608, which falls under the Civil Lines zone, followed by 410 in Keshavpuram zone, 390 in the south zone—comprising DU South campus, including Satya Niketan—and 365 units in Karol Bagh zone, which is a hub of coaching centres.

“Civil Lines zone has 608 PGs and just 364 have a sanctioned plan while Keshavpuram zone has 410 PG with out of which just 15% (54) have building plans,” the official said.

There are around 300 properties in Satya Niketan and 101 were found to be running as PG accommodations. The building collapse in Satya Niketan brought the spotlight on minimal enforcement of regulations on the unchecked rise in PG accommodations in the national capital.

The official explained that there are no licences issued for PG accommodation units, as it is not a regulated activity.

“Initially, PGs were operating as residential properties with portions of houses being rented out. But now, they are being run as full-fledged commercial operations with packages and brands operating chains of such units. The property tax department, over the past few years, started issuing conversion and commercial rate notices in many areas, such as those adjoining the North campus,” the official said.

The official said that even under the Master Plan for Delhi 2021, the PG reference was an afterthought. “Chapter 15 of the 2021 master plan dealt with mixed land-use regulations, permitting the use of land for purposes other than that for which it was originally envisaged. PG accommodations were added as ‘other activities’ in August 2016. it was only allowed in residential plots abutting roads that met specified right of way (ROW) requirements for mixed-use streets, residents said the prescribed norms of road width,” the official said.

The Master Plan for Delhi-2047 has further simplified norms for PG accommodations, while retaining restrictions in A and B category colonies.