Collapse: East delhi very vulnerable

The Lokeshwar Prasad Commission, looking into the reasons behind the building collapse at Lalita Park in 2010, said most buildings in east Delhi, especially in unauthorised and unauthorised-regularised colonies, flout basic principles of engineering and have severe construction defects that need to be addressed immediately.

East Delhi is virtually sitting on a tinderbox.

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The Lokeshwar Prasad Commission, looking into the reasons behind the building collapse at Lalita Park in 2010, said most buildings in east Delhi, especially in unauthorised and unauthorised-regularised colonies, flout basic principles of engineering and have severe construction defects that need to be addressed immediately.

Emphasising that a large portion of east Delhi is built on the Yamuna riverbed, which is sandy and remains inundated and is prone to earthquakes, the commission observed that most buildings are built on weak foundations, have poor super-structure and are "extremely vulnerable". Delhi falls in Seismic Zone IV on the scale of 5.

Based on the findings of a survey carried out by National Institute of Disaster Management, which carried out a representative survey of 1% (10,000) of 100,000 total buildings in east Delhi and findings of various other agencies, the Commission of Inquiry said tremendous remedial measures are required to make these buildings safer.

The commission observed that the concept of floor-area-ratio have been breached, additional floors have been constructed without considering load bearing capacity of the building, structures are poorly maintained, etc.