MHA asks MCD for audit plan covering every building in city

The civic body will submit an initial action plan within 10 days, but officials warn that the exercise could require extensive funding, manpower and expertise.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has been directed by the Union home ministry to prepare a roadmap for a citywide audit of fire and structural safety of every house and building in the Capital, including those in unauthorised localities. The initial report on the action plan will be submitted to MHA in 10 days, officials aware of the matter said on Friday.

Delhi has around 3.25 million buildings, while the first phase of Census 2027 recorded about 7.6 million census houses across the Capital. (HT Archive)

Auditing every house in Delhi would be a mammoth exercise, requiring substantial funding, manpower and independent technical expertise, with civic agencies lacking the capacity to inspect millions of buildings, senior officials said.

The directive – issued in a meeting which was attended by official from Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Fire Services, New Delhi Municipal Corportaion (NDMC), Delhi Police and MCD – follows a series of deadly incidents that have renewed concerns over building safety in the Capital. Fires, including the Palam blaze that killed nine people, and building collapses in Satya Niketan, Saidulajab and, most recently, New Seemapuri have highlighted the risks posed by unsafe structures and inadequate fire precautions.

“We have been asked to submit an action plan on citywide audits on fire and structural safety. Since the number of buildings is so large, such a mammoth exercise will take a lot of time and independent auditors may be required,” a senior civic official said, requesting anonymity.

Scale, Costs and Staffing Challenges

The scale of the task is evident from the available figures. Delhi recorded around 5.5 million households and 7.6 million census houses in the first phase of Census 2027. A household refers to people who normally live together and share a kitchen, while a census house is a building or part of a building recognised as a separate living unit, whether occupied or vacant. One building can contain multiple census houses such as flats.

MCD’s annual dangerous-building survey, meanwhile, estimates that Delhi has around 3.25 million buildings. The survey relies largely on visual inspections to flag warning signs such as cracks and leaning walls. The exercise proposed by MHA would go further by examining both structural integrity and fire safety.

“The final decision will be taken by MHA, but any citywide structural safety audit will require massive resources, logistical arrangements and manpower,” a second civic official said. Older buildings, structures without approved building plans and properties in unplanned settlements would need to be prioritised, the official added.

Officials flag scale of proposed inspection drive. (HT Graphics)

Funding could be another major hurdle. A basic scientific structural assessment of a small residential building can cost between ₹15,000 and ₹50,000, officials said. At the upper end of that range, such an exercise would entail expenditure possibly running into thousands of crores, officials said.

The corporation also lacks a dedicated unit specialising in structural safety audits and does not have permanent structural engineers on its rolls. Instead, it relies on 249 empanelled third-party structural engineers. If the 3.25 million buildings estimated by the MCD were all to be audited, each engineer would have to assess more than 13,000 buildings. The figure would be substantially higher if the exercise covered all 7.6 million census houses.

Expert Calls for Structural Safety Wing

Jagdish Mamgain, an urban planning expert and former chairman of MCD’s works committee, said that such critical issues should have been covered in the Master Plan of Delhi 2047. “If the government is genuinely serious about these issues, they should be made part of MPD-2047. How can such vital issues be ignored… First, we need a structural safety wing. MCD does not have a single post of structural safety engineers and relies on empaneled parties. Year after year, they fail to detect dangerous buildings in annual surveys. Secondly, the number of buildings and expense involved is so massive that government should ask people to submit the certificates through architects. This exercise must especially be completed in unauthorised colonies with strict deadline. Make it an annual exercise.”

The home ministry is expected to decide whether MCD should hire a third-party agency or use architects already empanelled with the civic bodies. MCD and New Delhi Municipal Council have around 250 empanelled architects between them, officials said. The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) has also been asked to provide details of its three-year workforce augmentation plan, which has already been submitted. The department would provide logistical support if directed to do so.

Earlier Safety Audit Efforts

However, an earlier effort to empanel third-party auditors to issue fire safety certificates has struggled to attract eligible applicants. DFS has sought a three-month extension for the empanelment process, but a notification is pending.

The challenges are not new. After the Palam fire, Delhi home minister Ashish Sood directed a comprehensive third-party audit of commercial establishments and businesses operating from residential premises, but the exercise failed to take off.

In June 2020, following the Delhi high court’s intervention, the three erstwhile municipal corporations set a six-month deadline to obtain structural safety certificates for high-risk buildings and older structures predating the incorporation of seismic provisions in Delhi’s building bye-laws. The last action-taken report submitted to the court showed that of 4,762 structures identified as high-risk or old, notices were issued to 4,571. Structural audit reports were received in only 1,155 cases. Demolition action was taken against 56 structures and retrofitting against 47.

Vulnerable Areas and Buildings

The problem is particularly acute in the Walled City and unauthorised colonies, where construction often takes place without adherence to building norms. The Tejendra Khanna Committee, set up in 2006 to examine unauthorised construction and misuse of premises, estimated that 70-80% of structures had violated building norms.

Delhi also falls in Seismic Zone IV, classified as having a high earthquake risk. Officials said any eventual audit would need to prioritise high-rise buildings, large assembly buildings, government offices, older properties and other vulnerable structures.

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