Out of 10,000 buildings, 6,000 asked for safety certificates: Delhi government to HC

NEW DELHI: The city government Thursday told the Delhi High Court, which is hearing a plea
related to earthquake preparedness, that out of over 10,000 buildings identified for assessing
structural safety, more than 6,000 have been asked to show structural safety certificates and
144 unsafe buildings demolished. The Delhi government said structural audit of 4655 buildings
has been done, while retrofitting is in progress in respect of 89.
The state government filed a status report before a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra
Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad which listed the matter for further hearing on
February 16.
The Delhi government said the reports on action taken pursuant to the high court’s earlier order,
shared by the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) of Delhi and other departments, reveal a total of 10203
buildings have been identified for assessing structural safety so far and notices have been
issued in respect of 6192 of them asking their owners to furnish structural safety certificates or
the details of remedial action taken.
“Further, structural audit has been done in respect of 4655 buildings so far. While retrofitting is in
progress in respect of 89 buildings, 144 unsafe buildings have also been demolished till date,” it
said.
It said it has come to notice that the Delhi Cantonment Board, Delhi Development
Authority, New Delhi Municipal Council and Public Works Department have not yet submitted
the updated required information related to preparedness for earthquake. Letters were issued to
them in December last seeking the requisite information, the status report said.
The Delhi government’s report was filed through standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi in a
pending PIL by petitioner advocate Arpit Bhargava claiming the seismic stability of buildings in
Delhi was poor and, in case of a major earthquake, there could be a large number of casualties.
In July last year, the city government had informed the high court about the proposal to conduct
structural audit of high-rise buildings and those that are over two decades old and witnessing
large footfall on top priority in a time-bound manner to check preparedness for an earthquake.
The petition was filed in 2015 and the high court has, from time to time, directed the Delhi
government and civic authorities to develop an action plan.
In 2020, Bhargava filed a contempt petition claiming the court’s earlier orders on making the
national capital ready to face any major earthquake have not been complied with yet.
In December 2020, the high court sought responses of the AAP government, the DDA, and the
three municipal corporations to the plea seeking contempt action against them for allegedly not
complying with judicial orders on ensuring seismic stability of buildings in Delhi.
In June 2020, after 11 minor tremors struck Delhi in a matter of days from April 12, 2020
onwards, Bhargava moved an application seeking setting up of a monitoring committee to
ensure timely implementation of the action plan for strengthening the buildings.
The court had, thereafter, issued several directions to the authorities to survey whether buildings
in Delhi were compliant with the norms of seismic stability, identify those non-compliant, take steps that are necessary and also develop an action plan.
In his plea seeking contempt action against the authorities, Bhargava said, “Despite serious
intervention by the high court over a period of five years the authorities have shown little
concern for larger public interest and did not move an inch to formulate and implement an action
plan.”
He contended there was a “deliberate and wilful non-compliance/violation of various orders”
passed by the court.