‘Regularised’ may not mean safe: Experts

A fire that killed three people in a residential building in Tughlakabad Extension on Friday has exposed a critical misunderstanding at the heart of Delhi's urban development expansion: that the regularisation of an unauthorised colony does not mean its buildings are structurally safe or compliant with construction norms.

- Saloni Bhatia

Urban planning experts HT spoke to on Friday stressed that the tragedy highlights how parts of Delhi have been brought into the legal fold over the decades for the purposes of ownership rights, electricity, water connections and taxation, without a corresponding exercise to verify whether buildings meet basic safety standards.

Tughlakabad Extension, where the fire occurred, was regularised in 1987 under a government scheme. However, many conditions envisaged under the regularisation process were never fully implemented, leaving the area vulnerable to unchecked construction activity.

“There is a prescribed process for submitting building plans, but violations are widespread,” said Jagdish Mamgain, urban planning expert and former chairman of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)'s Works Committee. In the case of Friday's incident, Mamgain pointed to clear violations of the permitted G+4 (ground-plus-four) construction norm.

A government official aware of details from Friday’s fire said that the builder had added extra floors and provided only single staircase for entry-exit. When the fire erupted on the ground floor, smoke rapidly spread through the building, trapping residents on the upper floors.