Taking a dim view of the building collapse in Connaught Palace, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has constituted 15 teams consisting of technical officers. According to an NDMC official, the team will submit their report in the next two days. “These teams will work under the overall supervision of Chief Engineer, Chief Architect, Director and Medical Officer,” the official said.
The terms of reference will be to carry out visual inspection of the buildings to identify the structural stress, if any and inspect the terrace of each premise, list out utilities like water storage (capacity), generator, other stacked material. “Besides, tentative estimate of load on each premise will be assessed and signs of seepage or other factors leading to building deterioration will be identified,” said the official.
“In case any building is found in a ruinous condition or in any way dangerous to any person occupying, restoring to or passing by such building or any other building or place in the neighborhood further action will be taken as per provisions of NDMC Act 1994 in this regard,” the official added.
On Monday, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) had suspended four engineers of Enforcement Wing of the Building Department for dereliction of duty.
This may be noted, in the span of 15 days, there were two incidents of roof collapse in CP. First incident was reported on February 2 from the C Block and the second incident took place on February 11 when the roof of building near Odeon Cinema came down.
The NDMC had also constituted a six-member panel, comprising structural safety experts from IIT-Delhi, CPWD, DMC and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of the area to inspect the site and ascertain the reason behind the collapse.