Preliminary investigation into the Sadar Bazar building collapse on Sunday has revealed the use of substandard construction material as the cause of incident. Senior officials of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) said the foundation of the building was found to be safe but the construction material being used by the contractor appeared to be of poor quality.
Additional Commissioner (Engineering), who is probing into the matter, has to submit the report within seven days. However, taking serious note of the incident, the three Municipal Corporations have begun surveying dangerous buildings in their areas. At the same time the zonal deputy commissioners have been instructed to initiate prosecution against unauthorised construction in their respective zones.
Meanwhile the Delhi Police on Sunday late night arrested one of the owners Babulal and his partner Rajendra Kumar was later arrested on Monday morning. The accused builder, identified as Humayun, is still absconding.
While the survey of dangerous buildings is underway; the previous year’s report shows 28 houses in the North Delhi areas were found to be in dangerous condition. Of these, 15 buildings were found in the City Zone which comprises the Old Delhi areas. While 12 dangerous properties were detected in Paharganj zone, one building was found unsafe in Karol Bagh. However, sources said the number of dangerous buildings in these areas was more than those mentioned in the survey report. “The North Delhi Corporation had surveyed over 4.72 lakh properties in 2013 out of which 28 were detected as dangerous. Action has been taken against all such properties,” said Yogendra Singh Mann, Director (press & information), North Delhi Municipal Corporation.