Frequent accidents, but little action: Walled City residents

Tuesday’s building collapse in the Chitli Qabar area of Chandni Mahal in Walled City is one among several symptoms of the challenges that are being faced by the oldest surviving quarters of the city while trying to accommodate increasing pressures of population and commercialisation, even as the scope for expansion is mostly negligible.

Structural safety is often the last word as lack of maintenance, ownership disputes and rampant illegal constructions have left thousands of heritage structures in Old Delhi unsafe, and robbed them of their character over decades of neglect.

A woman and her son were buried alive, while her four other children were injured when the roof of a two-strorey house collapsed at Chitli Qabar in New Delhi on Tuesday morning. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

Tuesday’s building collapse in the Chitli Qabar area of Chandni Mahal in Walled City is one among several symptoms of the challenges that are being faced by the oldest surviving quarters of the city while trying to accommodate increasing pressures of population and commercialisation, even as the scope for expansion is mostly negligible.

A woman and her son were buried alive, while her four other children were injured when the roof of a two-strorey house collapsed early Tuesday morning. In October, three people, including a four-year-old girl, died after a two-storey building collapsed near Lahori Gate. In June, a 3-year-old boy was killed and his two minor siblings and father sustained injuries when a portion of a building collapsed in Paharganj area.

According to the pre-monsoon survey of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) that identifies dangerous buildings in the city, nearly 80% of such buildings are in the Sadar Paharganj-City zone. The Walled City comes under this zone.

Abdul Rahim, general secretary, Save Shahjahanabad Welfare Society, said while the area is full of dilapidated buildings, securing permission for repair from various government agencies is a huge challenge. Rahim said that while private builders are able to get official permissions easily, residents are forced to run from pillar to post. Besides MCD, which provides official nod for taking up repairs in old structures, residents in Walled City also have to take permission from the Waqf Board which is the real owner of hundreds of premises.

The private builder-government official nexus has made the matters worse, locals alleged.

“The builder lobby keeps an eye on such buildings in order to strike deals with the owners. In the absence of proper maintenance the owners do not get the market worth of their property, and they have to pander to the demands of the builders who get maintenance approvals and buy the property at cheaper rates,” said Rahim.

Dheeraj Dubey, who heads the Walled City Residential Welfare Federation, said incidents of building collapse in the Walled City continue unabated. Dubey said that while the RWA had repeatedly complained about the presence of dangerous buildings and taken up cases where rules were being flouted, no steps were taken to put an end to such incidents.

“Some buildings in the area are heritage structures. Special permission is required for repairs in such buildings. Multiplicity of agencies makes it a complicated process. However, at the same time, we find unchecked construction of new multi-level buildings that are sold very quickly. There is corruption and a nexus between government agencies with builders whereas ordinary people are unable to get permission for repairs,” said Dubey.

He added that the MCD surveys to identify dangerous buildings in the city is mostly comprehensive enough.“The survey is simply a formality. The area has hundreds of buildings that do not abide by building bylaws. Fire incidents in the area are also a routine occurrence. We have also complained to the LG several times but to no avail. The area is not safe for the residents but no comprehensive plan is being implemented to address the issues,” said Dubey.

A separate redevelopment plan of Special Areas of Delhi was envisaged in the Master Plan of Delhi 2021 under which the MCD was supposed to allow urban regeneration and amalgamation of plots (of a minimum size of 3,000 square metres) for their redevelopment as a “complex”. This was meant to reduce congestion, improve building code compliance and reduce fire hazards. But the plan was never implemented. Spread over an area of 2,600 hectares, the “Special Areas” consist of Shahjahanabad (Walled City), Walled City extensions and parts of Karol Bagh.

Sanjay Bhargava, president Chandni Chowk Sarv Vyapar Mandal, said that the MCD should have declared the building as a dangerous building in its annual survey. Bhargava added that the agencies took action selectively. “Permission for repair is given on haphazard basis. Sometimes they give permission for repair but buildings with 4-5 floors are constructed,” said Bhargava.

He said that a statutory body that could specifically address the needs of the old Delhi is the need of the hour. “A special redevelopment plan was proposed in the Master Plan but none of the provisions were implemented. As a result, newer construction is taking place unchecked while heritage buildings are collapsing due to neglect. Heritage structures in the area should be surveyed and buildings that have already been mapped should be conserved with expert intervention. We need a single authority to streamlined various issues plaguing old Delhi if we want to save the area,” said Bhargava.