Delhi’s Satya Niketan building collapse was ‘like an earthquake’: Eyewitnesses flag 20-year-old PG, ‘clogged lanes’ | Today’s news
A building collapse in Delhi’s Satya Niketan sent residents scrambling out of nearby houses, describing the impact as “like an earthquake”, only to find that a five-storey PG accommodation had collapsed. The building, known as “Daze Hostel”, was full of students when it collapsed on Sunday.
After the collapse, people in the crowded neighborhood, home to several private student hostels, restaurants and shops near Delhi University’s south campus, began digging through the rubble with their bare hands and whatever tools they had at their disposal.
“We felt a slight tremor in our house. It was like the ground was shaking, like an earthquake. We ran outside,” a resident told PTI.
A local said the hostel was usually fully booked. Narrow and “congested lanes” also delayed emergency vehicles from reaching the scene, the person added.
Priyanka, who said she has lived in the area for 20-22 years, told the news agency that buildings in the locality are increasingly being built up to five or six floors. She said many houses were converted into boys’ PGs, property owners moved elsewhere and continued to rent them out online.
She alleged that the owners simply marked the properties as PG, collected the rent digitally and let them run without their supervision.
“The praha that collapsed is over 20 years old and in all these years I have not seen any maintenance work being done. The entire Satya Niketan is full of PGs and barely 30 percent of the house owners actually live here,” she said.
“Even the gutters and drains are open here. Many students were trapped inside the building. As it was raining, most of them were in their rooms while some went home as it was the weekend,” Priyanka further said.
Another resident said the buildings in the area are quite old and asked for a structural assessment of all such properties.
He claimed that five-storey buildings with basements had sprung up in the residential area, raising questions about whether such structures should have been permitted.
Locals said most of the students living in the area were from Kerala, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and attended colleges located across the road.
Rescue operation at the site of the building collapse
Repairs were going on in the basement of the building, which was being used as paying guest (PG) accommodation, when the structure collapsed around 1.30 pm, a senior officer said. Teams from Delhi Police, NDRF, Delhi Fire Service and DDMA along with fire brigade and CATS ambulances rushed to the spot and started rescue operations.
Two people were pronounced dead, according to authorities. Delhi Police said six people were rescued and taken to hospitals while search and rescue operations are still underway.
