900 Connaught Place units are dangerous, says experts' panel

New Delhi: The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has identified over 900 units as ‘dangerous’ in Central Delhi’s Connaught Place (CP). The survey to identify dangerous buildings was carried out after two roofs collapsed in CP within a fortnight.

The NDMC had formed a six-member panel comprising structural safety experts from IIT Delhi, Central Public Works Department, NDMC, and the sub-divisional magistrate of the area to inspect the collapse sites and ascertain the reason behind the tragedy. “We are conducting a safety audit as the collapses have raised questions over the structural stability of the buildings in Connaught Place. Over 900 units have been identified as dangerous and will be issued notices to either modify the structures to fall in line with the safety norms or face action,” said a senior NDMC official.

However, later in the evening, the NDMC claimed that its team had conducted the inspection of 900 units of Connaught Place, and the finding of the committee that 900 units are dangerous is baseless and far from reality.

The civic body had last week sealed 21 rooftop restaurants and bars for flouting norms. According to NDMC officials, terraces or balconies in heritage buildings cannot be used for any kind of commercial activities. “The audit team has reported that the terraces were overburdened with the weight of generator sets, furniture, water tanks, and other heavy equipments resulting in the crumbing of the old buildings. Seepage, cracks in walls, and dilapidated plasters have also weakened the foundation of the buildings,” he added.

The roof of a building in C-block, above Jain Book Store, collapsed on February 2, while another roof of a one-storey building in L-block which houses the popular restrobar collapsed on February 11.

Safety audit of building in CP was supposed to done regularly by the NDMC, but was not done in the recent past. A senior NDMC official said, “Several incidents of building collapse have been reported from Connaught Place but the department concerned of the NDMC has failed to perform its basic duty to check the structural strength of these structures. No one knows when the last structural safety audit was done. With each passing year, the foundations of the buildings are getting weaker and the load over them has increased manifold posing grave dangers to these historic buildings.”