Fire NOCs missing across Satya Niketan-Moti Bagh, only 3 restaurants cleared

Authorities are urged to create a policy for better oversight of paying guest facilities in the area following a recent building collapse.

Of all restaurants, cafes, buildings and other structures in the Satya Niketan and Moti Bagh area that are mandated to obtain a fire safety no-objection certificate (NOC), only three restaurants have an all-clear from the Delhi Fire Service (DFS), officials aware of the matter said.

An initial survey following Sunday’s deadly building collapse identifying at least 20 other multi-storey buildings in the area that appear to require a fire NOC but have never applied for one. (Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times)

This is despite an initial survey following Sunday’s deadly building collapse identifying at least 20 other multi-storey buildings in the area that appear to require a fire NOC but have never applied for one, officials said. Most of these buildings house paying guests (PGs), hostels and other student accommodation.

Under rules of DFS, structures exceeding the prescribed height threshold of 17.5 metres, eateries with seating capacity of more than 50 people and certain other commercial establishments are required to obtain fire NOCs.

The buildings identified in MCD’s surveys in and around Satya Niketan are mostly five- and six-storey structures that cross the 17.5-metre threshold, fire officials said.

But officials explained that the bigger problem has been the absence of a licensing regime for PGs and hostels has created a regulatory gap that makes it difficult for fire officials to systematically identify and inspect them.

“Unlike hotels and restaurants, paying guest accommodations and hostels do not require licences from any government department. The city, as things stand, does not have any specific policy regulating their functioning or registration,” a DFS official said.

The gap has come sharply into focus after seven people were killed on Sunday when a five-storey building housing Delhi University students in a PG in Satya Niketan collapsed. Police said renovation work was underway on the ground floor of the building.

According to a senior MCD official aware of the case, the building at P-14, Satya Niketan, had no sanctioned building plan and unauthorised construction had been carried out in its basement. MCD’s report said the property stood on a 55 sq yard plot and comprised a basement and ground to fourth floor. It was reportedly constructed in the 1990s.

The report also said there was no record of the property having been booked or sealed and that no complaint regarding construction work had been received.

DFS said the building did not have a fire NOC and that its owner had never applied for one.

The absence of a fire NOC, however, is not unusual among the hundreds of five- and six-storey buildings across Satya Niketan, South Campus and Moti Bagh that house PGs, rented rooms, messes, cafes and other businesses catering to students, police said.

“We can’t conduct independent surveys of residential buildings. Since only commercial buildings like hotels and restaurants need an excise licence, they apply for an NOC because it is a requirement. PGs never apply for licences even if the buildings are above 17.5 metres high,” the DFS officer said.

“We have found that three restaurants in the areas surrounding the spot do have NOCs, but other coaching centres, PGs, hostels and libraries don’t,” the officer added.

One of the three restaurants is near South Campus Metro station and the other two are in the South Moti Bagh area.

DFS is now working with the MCD and other departments to check PGs and hostels in residential areas, two fire officials said. Delhi Police has also asked station house officers and field staff to monitor high-rise buildings that appear to be “at risk” or are operating unauthorisedly. “We will then inform MCD to take sealing action against these buildings. They also have the power to initiate demolition of such buildings. Our job is to identify such buildings,” a senior police officer said.

To be sure, the government has acknowledged the wider regulatory problem for PGs. Urban development minister Ashish Sood announced on Tuesday, two days after the collapse, that the government plans to formulate a comprehensive policy to regulate PGs in Delhi within two months.

For urban planners, however, the issue is not simply the absence of a licence or fire NOC. It is the ecosystem that has allowed student accommodation to expand faster than the systems meant to regulate it.

Jagdish Mamgain, urban planning expert and former MCD works committee chairman, said PGs and coaching centres exploit the shortage of affordable student accommodation, while weak enforcement allows illegal construction to fill the gap.

“There are not enough hostel rooms, so there is a clear demand. Illegal PGs keep adding cubicle-like rooms to meet this demand illegally,” he said, adding that similar economies had emerged around educational hubs such as Kingsway Camp, Malkaganj and areas around JNU.

“Students are falling victim to poor planning that leads to a shortage of dwelling units, allowing illegality to fill that gap,” Mamgain said.

The Satya Niketan collapse has therefore exposed a problem larger than one building: a system in which a five- or six-storey structure can operate as a student accommodation facility, while falling outside the routine licensing and fire-safety checks applied to comparable commercial establishments.