Structural safety measures still a distant dream

After the Lalita Park incident in east Delhi in 2010 which claimed 71 lives, the erstwhile MCD, almost two years after the incident and several cases of building collapse, has failed to constitute a panel of 200 structural safety engineers to ensure structural safety of buildings in the Capital.

By the end of April 2011, the erstwhile MCD had constituted a panel of 39 structural safety engineers who would issue certificates on the structural safety of buildings constructed in the area falling in its jurisdiction.

The then MCD spokesperson Deep Mathur had said that corporation was likely to increase the number of engineers on the panel from 39 to 200. However, till date the three corporations together have not even been able to touch the three-digit mark.

Leader of House in South Corporation Subhash Arya, who also held the spokesperson position in the erstwhile MCD, said the civic body has failed to empanel desired number of engineers, but experts from the engineering department of the corporation are doing the work of checking structural safety of buildings.

“All the three new corporations will soon issue an advertisement calling interested structural safety engineers to join the panel,” Arya said. 

According to plan, the empowered panel was authorised to issue structural safety certificates under the provisions of building by-laws.

All structural safety licences will expire on 31 December every year.

“Once the corporation makes inspection by structural safety experts mandatory, neither the buildings can be regularised nor completion certificates issued without getting certificate from the structural engineer,” a corporation official said.