This is the reason why the building which collapsed in Bara Hindu Rao area on Wednesday morning was not in the ‘dangerous building’ list of the local civic body.
North Delhi Municipal Corporation under whose jurisdiction the building fell, claims to perform annual pre-monsoon survey of dangerous buildings in its area. As per the report compiled by the corporation in its pre-monsoon survey for 2013-14, the building department individually surveyed all the 25,875 houses in walled city area among which 15 were found dangerous. Ironically, none of the 15 buildings collapsed but so far two buildings outside the including this incident have been collapsed so far in this year.
‘The basis of survey is just appearance, visibility of cracks and commonsense of the officer visiting the site,’ said a chief engineer level officer in the department. ‘A scientific estimate about safety of the building can be done only on the basis of structural drawing of the building. The residents in the area never get the maps of the building approved and often engage in unauthorised constructions which is dangerous for old buildings,’ he added. Out of the 4.72 lakh buildings surveyed in the North DMC area, only 28 were declared dangerous and notices were issued to their occupants for necessary maintenance or evacuation. Among these 28 buildings, 12 are in Sadar Paharganj and 15 in the walled city area.
According to officers of engineering department almost all the houses in the walled city area are made without approval of the map. The situation in other parts of the city is equally bad as two buildings collapsed in this year in East DMC area and one in South DMC area.
North Delhi Municipal Corporation under whose jurisdiction the building fell, claims to perform annual pre-monsoon survey of dangerous buildings in its area. As per the report compiled by the corporation in its pre-monsoon survey for 2013-14, the building department individually surveyed all the 25,875 houses in walled city area among which 15 were found dangerous. Ironically, none of the 15 buildings collapsed but so far two buildings outside the including this incident have been collapsed so far in this year.
‘The basis of survey is just appearance, visibility of cracks and commonsense of the officer visiting the site,’ said a chief engineer level officer in the department. ‘A scientific estimate about safety of the building can be done only on the basis of structural drawing of the building. The residents in the area never get the maps of the building approved and often engage in unauthorised constructions which is dangerous for old buildings,’ he added. Out of the 4.72 lakh buildings surveyed in the North DMC area, only 28 were declared dangerous and notices were issued to their occupants for necessary maintenance or evacuation. Among these 28 buildings, 12 are in Sadar Paharganj and 15 in the walled city area.
According to officers of engineering department almost all the houses in the walled city area are made without approval of the map. The situation in other parts of the city is equally bad as two buildings collapsed in this year in East DMC area and one in South DMC area.