Delhis Fragile Foundation Repeated House Collapse Unchecked Expansion Of The City

The collapse of a building in Saidulajab on Saturday, which killed at least six people, is not an isolated accident. Experts, officials and past records suggest it is a manifestation of a much larger crisis unfolding across Delhi, where hundreds of unauthorise... The collapse of a building in Saidulajab on Saturday, which killed at least six people, is not an isolated accident. Experts, officials and past records suggest it is a manifestation of a much larger crisis unfolding across Delhi, where hundreds of unauthorised colonies and urban villages are dotted with buildings that flout norms, leaving millions of people vulnerable to disaster in the very houses they live in. The six-storey structure, where two additional floors were allegedly being constructed atop an existing building, came crashing down beside a dining mess frequented by postgraduate students, including doctors and engineers. Locals said the building housed offices and co-working spaces on its lower floors, while construction activity was underway above. Civic officials said the structure stood in an unauthorised colony where no new construction should have been permitted in the first place. “There are no approved layout plans or building plans in this area. It is an unauthorised colony that has developed on agricultural land,” a civic official said. In the hours after the collapse, an all-too-familiar script unfolded. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) suspended two of its engineers, the Delhi government ordered an inquiry, and the chief minister promised that “strict action will be taken against all unauthorised constructions.” Yet an HT visit showed several similar multi-storey buildings in the area where fresh construction was ongoing. More importantly, Saidulajab is far from an exception. Across Delhi’s unauthorised colonies and urban villages, buildings routinely rise beyond sanctioned limits, often without approved plans, structural audits or adequate foundations. This reality is reflected in the frequency of building collapses in the Capital. Delhi Fire Services (DFS) records show that the department received 76 calls related to house collapses in the first five months of this year – 17 in January, 10 in February, 15 in March, 20 in April and 14 in May. The department recorded 544 such incidents in 2025 and another 464 in 2024. A total of 46 people lost their lives in building collapses between January 2024 and December 2025. In August last year, seven people died when a building collapsed in Jaitpur’s Hari Nagar area. A month earlier, six people, including a toddler, were killed when a four-storey residential structure gave way. In April 2025, 11 people, including four children, died in another collapse. Perhaps the most devastating reminder remains the November 2010 Lalita Park disaster in East Delhi, where a five-storey building collapsed, killing 70 people and injuring 77 others. Yet nearly eight years later, the concerned junior engineer was penalised with a fine of only ₹21,000. Urban planners stressed that the pattern has remained largely unchanged despite repeated tragedies. Jagdish Mamgain, former chairman of the works committee in the unified MCD and an urban planning expert, said