A Report on Building Collapse

BUILDING COLLAPSE AT GANDHI NAGAR, EAST DELHI

Rampant unauthorized construction and continuous rains have resulted in three deaths when a portion of two illegally constructed floors collapsed on August 30, 2012 in Gandhi Nagar, East Delhi. The mishap occurred when the owner was adding two more floors on a four storied building constructed more than a decade back

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The site was inspected by the experts of Indian Buildings Congress. The colony where the mishap occurred was a illegal colony which has been regularized by Delhi Govt. only a couple of days ago. In an illegal colony, neither there is any requirement to get the plans approved nor any Govt. body checks construction activity going on in the area. This results in narrow lanes and absence of civic amenities like parks, community centre, shopping centre, other public utilities etc. This is what happened in Gandhi Nagar. The landlord had constructed four floors long back and now due to greed for more commercial area two more floors were being added.

No architect or structural engineer is ever involved in such cases. Nobody makes sure whether the soil below structure is having sufficient safe bearing capacity to take load of additional floors. The mason at site or the contractor is only person who takes all decisions. The building was having half brick walls as load bearing walls. One can easily anticipate what will happen to such fragile structures. Even if the structure is able to withstand vertical loads imposed due to inherent factor of safety, it will remain highly vulnerable during the seismic forces.