Two years on, Signature View remains a daily hazard for its helpless residents

Standing beneath a 12-storey residential tower in north Delhi, one might mistake it for a structure built five or six decades ago. The electricity meter room in the stilt parking area is crumbling, with large chunks of paint and plaster flaking off regularly. Even more alarming is the visible gap between the wall and the roof, allowing a clear streak of daylight to shine through.

- Snehil Sinha

The tower appears to be held up by little more than hope.

This is the grim reality of life at Signature View Apartments - a residential complex in Mukherjee Nagar, north Delhi.

Built by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) over 2.16 acres, the society was launched in 2007, and possession of flats started in 2012. The complex has 12 towers of 12 and six floors, with a total of 336 flats.

Launched in 2007, with possessions starting in 2012, the buildings began showing signs of decay within months of occupation, according to residents.

All 12 towers were declared unfit for habitation when the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi conducted a structural audit in December 2022. But the Delhi high court in July this year ordered a stay on the demolition the residents continue to live in limbo.

"We are at our wit's end. It's only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens. The situation worsens daily, but authorities remain unresponsive. Just yesterday [December 18], we got a DDA team to inspect one of the pillars in a tower that had become completely exposed to the elements...but only said they'd inform their seniors," said Gaurav Pandey, general secretary of the society's residents' welfare association.

Buildings declared uninhabitable