Delhi govt retreats on building safety reform

Finding itself unable to handle a needed reform on building safety, the city government of Delhi has decided to revoke it, just three weeks after it was ordered.

On March 30, the government made a structural safety certificate mandatory for registering any property or where the sanctioned plan showed major structural deviations. “Now the vendor (seller) and vendee (buyer) are also required to furnish a certificate of structural safety issued by the competent authority,” stated the order.

This came after a review showed unchecked growth of unsafe and unauthorised construction, a subject that came into wide focus after the collapse of a four-storey buolding last November in an East Delhi locality, killing 70 people.

Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna, in a January meeting, stressed the need for a special task force to crack down on land sharks and unauthorised construction. Stringent measures to focus on structural safety were also discussed. The March 30 order was a follow-up action.

As a result, transactions in the secondary market have almost ceased, with buyers and sellers mostly unable to register any transaction. ‘‘Having this certificate was not mandatory earlier for registering the properties, so no one bothered getting one,’’ said a Delhi-based broker, on condition of anonymity.

The ban has not only impacted buying and selling of properties but also other deals like registration of a lease agreement or a special power of attorney (SPAs). SPAs are executed within a family to facilitate a sale or any other transaction. There are nine sub-registrar’s offices in the city and each used to do 100 registrations a day before the ban came in, with sale deeds accounting for a third of them. Today, they hardly do 10-20 registrations a day at each of these offices.

‘CAN’T HANDLE IT’
The problem in Delhi is that most properties have sanction plans but lack structural safety certificates, as this was never mandatory. The city government’s revenue department had written to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to empanel more architects and engineers. MCD has said it doesn’t have the infrastructure and engineers to issue structural safety certificates.

Civic officials estimate there are close to three million properties in the city. And, thjose in formerly unauthorised colonies, urban and rural villages and resettlement colonies don’t have sanctioned building plans. MCD had empanelled 20 structural engineers, but these are not enough.

The agencies are also not equipped to enforce the order, after overlooking irregular construction for years. Hence, last week, the Delhi government decided to revoke its order; apart from MCD opposition and other political pressure, its revenue collection is also affected. “We have decided to revoke the order, as the MCD has informed us that it does not have an adequate number of structural engineers to issue such certificates,” chief minister Sheila Dikshit had said.

‘‘There’s mass corruption. Builders doing builder floors get a free hand to do extra coverage. Most owners build according to their building plans but even they don’t get this structural stability certificate, as the unofficial charges of getting one is very high,’’ said another broker, who didn’t want to be identified for this article.

The talk in real estate circles is that the order could be revoked as early as next week. What is not clear is how Delhi plans to undo the damage that has already been done: unauthorised and unsafe construction, and to prevent a repeat of the November tragedy.