NEW DELHI: A four-storey residential building in the national capital came down like a pack of cards on Monday morning. However, no casualty or injury was reported from the incident. The entire occurrence was captured by the locals with their mobile cameras showing a clear video of how the entire structure, located at Delhi’s Shastri Nagar, collapsed within seconds on the road.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said they received a PCR call around 8.45 am regarding the collapse of a building at E- 2/201 after which the local police staff immediately rushed to the spot.
“It was a 4-storey building owned by Balraj Arora. It had developed cracks in May 2022 and was thus vacated,” the DCP said, adding that the matter was only brought to the notice of a municipal agency to take necessary action with respect to the state of the building after which MCD officials were called to inspect the spot.
Meanwhile, the civic agency said the ill-fated building tilted about six months ago by 4 to 5 inches from the top towards the adjoining empty plot due to a bit of settlement of the foundation. “The building had been declared dangerous immediately and vacated. But the owner approached the court against the MCD orders. The court directed to get a report from the independent structural engineer,” the MCD official said.
The next date of hearing is on December 14 and February 14, 2023 in two different courts. The building was lying vacant for the last six months and no one was residing there. On Monday, the building again started tilting towards the empty plot and precautionary measures were immediately taken.