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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A shaky foundation built on graft and violation of laws by Arpit Parashar

A shaky foundation built on graft and violation of laws by Arpit Parashar

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published Published on Dec 12, 2011   modified Modified on Dec 12, 2011

The building collapse in Uttam Nagar that killed four people last week has again exposed how the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) as well as the state government are mired in large-scale corruption. The major cause of the incident, in which four people were killed, was reportedly the flouting of construction norms by the builder.

Officials from MCD told Tehelka on condition of anonymity that the number of illegal buildings goes into many hundreds. “The figures are staggering… successive governments and MCD regimes have approved such constructions and given builders a free hand. There is little that can be done now,” a senior Delhi Development Authority (DDA) officer rued. After the Lalita Park building collapse last year, which killed 67 people, the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled MCD had intensified the drive against illegal structures and also conducted a joint survey with the National Institute of Disaster Management in east Delhi to identify such buildings—but the situation is still pathetic.

The basic problem with urbanisation in Delhi is the encroachment of flood plain of the Yamuna—a volatile river known to change its course frequently—over the past hundred years. Yearly monsoon flooding and surfacing of groundwater is regular in these areas putting the residents around the 22-km stretch of the Yamuna in the capital at grave risk.

MK Pandit, Director of Delhi University’s School of Environmental Studies, says that what adds to the risk is that the flood plain has been formed by fine sediments or loose soil—sand and silt. The flood plain owes its very formation to tectonic and seismic activities in the Himalayan region, from where it originates. “These features make the area vulnerable to geological hazards. Secondly, urbanisation has resulted in concretisation of the ground reducing water infiltration capacity of these areas by three to four times.” The muddy alluvium soil gets saturated fast because of high amounts of water causing water-logging.

All areas in the active flood plain of 9,700 hectare and structures like Delhi Metro Rail Corporation complexes at Shastri Park and Yamuna Bank, Akshardham temple, Commonwealth Games Village, Delhi Transco buildings, Delhi Secretariat, India Gandhi Indoor Stadium and the DND flyway are at risk. Besides, villages like Garhi Mandu and Usmanpur and unauthorised colonies of Sonia Vihar and Rajiv Nagar are in the danger zone. All other low-lying areas like Majnu Ka Tila, Yamuna Bazar, Qudsia Ghat, the ISBT, Civil lines, Batla House extension, Abul Fazal enclave, Madanpur Khadar and almost whole of the Walled City are also located in this zone.

Anand Swarup Arya, professor emeritus, IIT Roorkee, and seismic advisor to the Central government and the United Nations Development Programme, pointed out that buildings in flood-prone areas should be way above high- flood level with their foundations below the undergroundwater level. In case of an earthquake-prone zone like Delhi, the foundation should be deep enough to touch the bedrock.

The situation in Delhi is worse. According to the Central Groundwater Board, the bedrock of the Yamuna flood plain is almost 150 metres deep with the first 40 metres having nothing but sand. Due to enormous expenditure involved, builders do not lay the foundation as deep as 150 metres. “Therefore, all buildings have foundations almost hanging in the sandy layer. Moreover, due to excessive groundwater harvesting during summers and even otherwise, the water table recedes to more than 30 metres at several places,” says Manoj Misra, Convener of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, a Mayur Vihar-based NGO which has been protesting the encroachment of the Yamuna flood plain.

A flood plain is a storehouse of aquifers that become active during flooding. Dry aquifers in sandy layers cause the ground to sink or flood waters to burst out at many places. Every year, the MCD has to pump out flood water from basements of buildings and water-logged roads in Delhi, especially in the east. The burst of flood water was also the reason for the flooding of the Commonwealth Games Village right before the event in 2010. The embankments that could not prevent flooding in and around the village had been declared as cut-off zone from the flood plain by National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in its 2008 report, based on which the Supreme Court gave the green signal to the Games project. However, the report contradicted NEERI’s own assessment of the site in its 2005 report, sponsored by the DDA, in which it had specifically recommended against constructing any permanent residential facility on the river bed even though the very embankments existed since 2002.

“No embankment on the flood plain, even as wide as the six-lane Mayur Vihar-Noida link road, is good enough to prevent the spread of flood waters. The situation becomes worse when flood waters are unable to spread further and accumulate along the sides of embankments,” Misra added.

For the government and builders, using technology to take required precautions—which make urbanisation of areas around rivers totally infeasible—is too expensive. Important environmental considerations were ignored and unbridled urbanisation was unleashed in Delhi in the last 50 years.

Construction in areas smaller than 50,000 sq m in the capital mostly does not need environment clearance. Construction laws in the city for residential areas, although debatable, are sufficient to prevent incidents like the one in Uttam Nagar, says Harini Narayanan, urban planning expert and researcher. But the laws are often violated. “Except for some areas in and around the India Gate, the laws are never observed barring some exceptions,” she says.

The master plans are not in pace with the rapid need for urbanisation of the city. “It is not even planning; the master plans have not been implemented in most areas. The whole model of development in the city needs to be reconsidered and the master plans looked at afresh,” Narayanan points out.

One such example is the rapid urbanisation of areas around the metro stations across the capital. MCD officials point out that the demand for rentable houses in areas closer to metro stations has gone up. “The demand for markets and houses in such areas has increased, but there are no plans to develop areas around metro stations or even monitor constructions,” says Narayanan.

The Uttam Nagar building was also extremely close to the nearest metro station. The owner was building an extra floor to supplement his rent and carrying on some construction work in the basement. Besides, the foundation of an adjacent building was being laid. MCD officials said that the construction work in both the buildings triggered the collapse. Several such buildings have collapsed but neither the government nor the MCD has taken action. In a similar incident in September, a building collapsed at Chandni Mahal in old Delhi due to construction in the adjacent plot killing seven people. Last month, two labourers were trapped in the debris of an under-construction building while digging a basement at Paharganj. No MCD official was found guilty in inquiries ordered into the incidents.

In the Uttam Nagar incident too, the MCD has ordered a vigilance inquiry. The Delhi government, meanwhile, has also ordered a probe and replaced Urban Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan.

Slow government action and lack of monitoring has emboldened builders and house owners, who flout laws brazenly with some even bribing MCD officials. “Consequently, building violations are rampant across the capital,” says Narayanan. Authorities have not even been able to protect the heritage buildings in the city. “At least 30 out of total 1,208 heritage buildings in the capital have been lost in the past ten years,” an official of the Delhi Urban Development Department told Tehelka.

Experts like Pandit warn that any more construction in the Yamuna flood plain, leave alone vacating the already reclaimed land, “will adversely impact the underground water recharge and cause more flooding and disasters”. But during several meetings Pandit had with officials from Central and Delhi government departments where he tried to discuss the issue, these aspects were “completely ignored”.

Arpit Parashar is a Senior Correspondent with Tehelka.com.

Tehelka, 10 December 2011, http://tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ws101211ILLEGAL.asp

Tagged with: Corruption



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