Winter construction ban among many safety rules ignored at Chawri Bazar site

Despite a police alert in June and an MCD inspection, the civic body failed to book the property for illegal construction before the fatal collapse.

Under two separate sets of restrictions – Delhi government’s Winter Action Plan and Stage 2 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) – private construction in the Capital should have been halted in the days leading up to Thursday’s deadly building collapse in Chawri Bazar. Yet, according to eyewitnesses and locals, construction was underway at the site in full swing.

The Tejendra Khanna Committee estimated in 2006 that 70-80% of structures in Delhi had violated building norms. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

The work was only one of several violations at property number 4547-48 in Gali Sheesh Mahal, Ajmeri Gate, where a four-storey structure came up without a sanctioned building plan and allegedly in violation of basic safety norms. The building was never booked for any lapses.

Several locals told HT that construction workers had been working at a rapid pace at the site. Officials aware of the matter said the work was being hurriedly completed to avoid detection. The collapse occurred while workers were carrying out de-shuttering work, triggering the failure of the roof and the rest of the structure.

The building stood on a plot measuring approximately 45 sq yd, at the end of a dead-end lane. The owner had allegedly constructed new floors under the guise of carrying out repairs, exposing gaps in the enforcement of building regulations by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Warnings and enforcement gaps

A preliminary inquiry found that MCD’s maintenance department had issued an advisory to the owner on April 28 citing the deteriorated condition of the building and asking him to undertake strengthening work. “The advisory specifically clarified that it should not be construed as permission for reconstruction,” the civic body said.

In June, MCD inspected the property after receiving a letter from Delhi Police flagging unauthorised construction. The owner was found undertaking repair work, the civic body said.

MCD has since alleged that the owner carried out “fresh construction activity on the second and third floors under the garb of repair work”, in violation of its advisory and building bye-laws. The absence of subsequent inspections, despite the police alert, raises questions about how a multi-storey structure could come up over the following months without enforcement action.

“The shuttering of the third-floor lintel was hurriedly removed (on Thursday), reportedly in apprehension of restrictions on the ongoing construction activity, following which the third-floor lintel collapsed, triggering the collapse of the entire building,” MCD said.

The civic body had also not booked the property for illegal construction. Its action-taken report on pollution enforcement shows that no challans were issued in the Old Delhi zone during the period.

Accountability after the collapse

Citing a “prima facie case of severe dereliction of duty”, MCD suspended area junior engineer Aman Dalal and assistant engineer Mohd Naeem pending an inquiry. Further action is being taken to establish the cause of the collapse and fix responsibility, it said.

However, the suspensions have renewed questions about accountability and whether action against officials responsible for detecting illegal construction goes beyond departmental inquiries and minor penalties.

The collapse of a five-storey building in east Delhi’s Lalita Park in November 2010, which killed 70 people and injured 77, remains a stark example. A decade after the disaster, the junior engineer concerned faced a fine of only ₹21,000, which could be paid in instalments.

Structural safety: poor material and little oversight

Unauthorised construction remains widespread across Delhi, particularly in the Walled City and unauthorised colonies. 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.

Jagdish Mamgain, an urban planning expert and former chairman of the MCD works committee, said the police had informed the corporation about the illegal construction and it was difficult to believe such extensive work could have gone unnoticed.

“It is all a nexus of politicians, MLAs, corporators, builders and officials in which money greases along the entire chain. Deputy commissioners have to be held accountable. All building collapses this year have been linked to illegal constructions. If there is political will on top, only then can these collapses stop,” he said.

Mamgain also flagged the lack of oversight over the quality of construction material. “There are 100-year-old buildings in Old Delhi which are still intact, but we have seen so many building collapses of under-construction buildings recently. There needs to be some regulatory oversight,” he said.

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