Delhi : A place I have known for over 20 years has now become the site of a tragedy. The question is not why one building collapsed, but why we allowed the conditions for such a collapse to exist for so long.
The news of the building collapse in Satya Niketan on Sunday hit me differently. I have had my office in Satya Niketan for nearly 20 years. This is not just another locality in Delhi that I pass through. I have worked there, met people there, watched the neighbourhood change and saw its buildings get taller and taller. So when I saw the images of the collapsed building, the rubble, the rescue operations and the people waiting anxiously for news of those trapped inside, it did not feel like a distant tragedy somewhere in Delhi. It felt personal.
Seven people have lost their lives in the tragedy, and according to the latest reports, several others are injured and some still trapped. The building housed students in a PG accommodation.
My first thought was this could have happened anytime. Because anyone who has spent years in Satya Niketan knows that the building may have collapsed on Sunday afternoon, but the failure behind it had been building up for years.
It was a disaster waiting to happen, It was originally a low-rise residential settlement. Over the years, its character changed completely. Small residential plots became PGs, hostels and student accommodation. Buildings that were originally designed for a residential use began carrying much greater loads and accommodating many more people. And then came the extra floors extending upto fifth and in some cases even six floors. Old structures being modified again and again. Basements being altered. Residential properties being converted into high-density accommodation.
The MCD’s preliminary findings in the present case say that the collapsed property had no sanctioned building plan and that the basement construction was unauthorised. The MCD has also stated that a fifth floor was not permitted under the applicable FAR rules. The reports emerging after the collapse also point towards a combination of an old structure, unauthorised additions and work being carried out in the basement.
The real question is If a building can acquire additional floors, change its use, become a PG and continue functioning for years, who was supposed to notice? Was nobody responsible for looking at it? Was there no field inspection? Was there no political representative who knew what was happening? Or was everybody simply waiting for something to happen?
The question is not only who built it but also who allowed it to happen? If someone knowingly adds an illegal fifth or sixth floor, compromises the structural safety of a building and then rents it out to dozens of people, there cannot be an argument that the owner had no responsibility. There must be accountability. But there has to be another question. floors or a basement do not appear overnight. A residential house does not become a 40 room PG without a substantial physical transformation. Construction takes days, weeks and months. workers come, material comes. trucks come, neighbours see it, local officials can see it, businesses operate, tenants move in.
And yet, somehow, the system often discovers the illegality only after the building collapses.
The fact that the MCD report reportedly says that there was no record of booking or sealing of the property and no complaint regarding construction at the property is what makes the questions above even more important.
The truth is that Satya Niketan should not be treated as an isolated problem. Delhi has several areas where the transformation of low-rise residential properties into much taller and denser structures has been taking place for years. Laxmi Nagar and Shakarpur have a long history of unauthorised additions. The 2010 Lalita Park building collapse, in which more than 60 people died, had brought exactly the same questions to the forefront. There are many more similar areas Uttam Nagar, Om Vihar, Burari, sangam Vihar, Chhatarpur extension, karawal nagar, nangloi to name a few.
This is not a complete list of areas where illegal construction thrives But it should be the beginning of making one.
If MCD has property records, and those records contain information about a property, its use and its tax assessment, why can’t the property-tax system become one of the inputs into a city-wide building-safety and compliance database?
Technology has already made this possible. The government should stop reacting and start mapping
The immediate reaction after a tragedy is predictable. Seal some buildings. Inspect some buildings. Issue some notices. Suspend somebody. Announce a committee. Make strong statements. Then, after a few weeks, the city moves on. We have seen this before.
After the deaths of three civil-services aspirants in the Old Rajinder Nagar coaching-centre tragedy in 2024, the immediate response included sealing basements and taking action against coaching centres and libraries operating in violation of rules.
Today it is PGs, Yesterday it was coaching centres and libraries, Tomorrow it may be something else. The objective should not be to close businesses or inconvenience citizens. The objective should be to make buildings safe and ensure that rules are followed.
The government should use this tragedy as an opportunity for a genuine structural reform, they should ensure that the Danger Zones are mapped and Risk audits are conducted. Integrated property compliance database is made and filing complaint and their redressal system is completely transparent, official accountability is fixed.
That would be governance. Not disaster site visits, not another press conference.
The government now has an opportunity to build a system in which an unsafe building becomes visible to the government before it becomes visible to the rescue teams. That is the real test after Satya Niketan and that is the accountability Delhi should demand.