North Delhi civic body to survey buildings in Sawan Park after collapse

A day after the collapse of a five-storey building in Sawan Park, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation said it will conduct a fresh survey of buildings in its area to identify other dangerous structures.

On Thursday, the North Corporation’s engineer-in-chief Vijay Prakash issued a circular directing all executive engineers to revisit all houses in their areas.

“After the collapse of a building in Sawan Park, we are assuming more dangerous houses are there in different neighbourhoods. To avoid more such incidents, a decision has been taken to conduct this survey,” a senior North MCD official said.

The civic agency usually carries out a survey every year before monsoon in order to identify dangerous buildings. This year, 178 “dangerous” structures were identified across Delhi as per the report issued by the three municipal corporations in June. But the building in Sawan Park, which collapsed on Wednesday, was not on that list.

Officials said they didn’t find any crack during their visit to the house a few months ago. “We are still conducting an inquiry into this matter. It will also be checked if the house was constructed illegally,” a senior North Corporation official, on condition of anonymity, said.

Constructed 25 years ago, the building was dilapidated, say civic officials. Local residents alleged that they had filed several complaints with the North MCD but the agency didn’t take any action.

Meanwhile, the process to conduct a fresh survey will be completed within one week’s time and necessary action will be taken as per the provision of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.

“Any laxity or misreporting in this regard shall be viewed seriously and the field staff concerned shall be held responsible for negligence,” Prakash said.

The civic agency also directed officials to issue vacation notices to the already identified dangerous buildings. “The vacation notices to such properties be issued immediately and sealed, so that such incidents won’t occur in the future,” mentioned in the circular issued on Thursday.

On Thursday, the North MCD discontinued the contract of an engineer while suspended two others in connection with the collapse of a five-storey “weak” building.

While an executive engineer and an assistant engineer have been suspended, the contract of a junior engineer has been terminated, according to an official order. “Under the orders of the competent authority, Rajesh Sharma, executive engineer, maintenance, and Abhay Jain, assistant engineer (civil) Keshavpuram zone are placed under suspension with immediate effect pending inquiry against him,” said the order issued by the North MCD’s vigilance department.