Gurugram: Building with illegal floors collapses, 7 die

GURUGRAM: Seven people were buried under debris after a building in Ullawas village of Gurugram along Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) collapsed on Thursday while it was being illegally extended by constructing a second and a third floor. The building collapsed within 12 hours after the roof of the third floor was cast in concrete, killing all seven people who lived in the building, all on the first floor.

The plot owner and the contractor were booked in an FIR, while the district administration has initiated a magisterial probe, after the chief minister announced Rs 3 lakh ex-gratia for the victims.

The building stood on a 300 sq yd plot, demarcated lal dora (village) land, and shared walls with neighbouring buildings on three sides, with just a narrow approach road on the fourth. No approval or sanction was taken from any government authority for the construction, which grossly violated building bylaws. According to the rescue team, it was erected on a weak foundation with sub-standard construction material.


The construction had begun six months ago, since when villagers said they had warned land owner Dayaram several times about the quality of construction. But he ignored them and kept adding one floor after another, they said. The ground floor was already being used as a cowshed, while the first floor, having four rooms in a row, was leased out to nine migrant workers. Once the second floor had been built, construction of separation walls between rooms was in progress in the second floor, while the third floor roof was cast on Wednesday evening, at around 4pm. The building came crashing down at around 5am next morning.

According to neighbours, Dayaram, who owns two more houses down the street, used to milk his buffaloes every morning before sunrise. On Thursday, he had just finished milking when he heard cracking noises and alerted his tenants on the first floor, before he ran out with his buffaloes. “Before the tenants could run out, though, the building collapsed, trapping most of them in the staircase,” said neighbour Ranjit, an eyewitness. He said other neighbours came running after they heard the crash, some of whom informed police and fire department.

A fire department team reached the spot first, followed by SDRF and NDRF squads. The rescue operation was launched within an hour of the collapse.

Sarpanch Anil said Ullawas doesn’t come under MCG jurisdiction. “The building was on lal dora land. No one takes permissions to build on such land,” he said. The village has 500 houses and 1,500 residents of voting age. Around 80% of the buildings are 4-5 storied and a third of the houses are leased out on rent. Most of the lessees are labourers working on real-estate projects.

For the past two months, the first floor of Dayaram’s house was occupied by nine migrant workers, who used to work as security guards, electricians or masons at projects in new sectors. Two of them, who worked as security guards, were yet to return from night duty. The other seven perished. At the time of reporting, six dead bodies had been recovered by the joint exercise of NDRF, SDRF, fire department, MCG, police and civil defence teams. The seventh body had been spotted, and efforts were on to extricate it.

The deceased were identified as Altaf (20) and Anand (22) from Samastipur in Bihar, Kuldeep (32) and Vishal (17) from Ambedkarnagar in UP, Mohit (19) from Firozabad in UP and two unknowns.

Deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh attested that six bodies had been recovered. “The rescue operation will continue into the night. Bodies have been sent to Civil Hospital for post-mortem. The SDM has been asked to conduct a magisterial enquiry to examine cause of accident and to suggest remedy,” said Singh, adding the chief minister has announced Rs 3 lakh compensation to each victim.

Police commissioner K K Rao said a case has been registered against the plot owner and the contractor, under Section 304A (death due to negligence) at Sector 65 police station. “The incident, in which several people lost their lives, was caused by negligence,” said Rao, adding that action will be taken against those found guilty.

Captain Ajay Singh Yadav, Congress leader and former minister, who visited the site blamed MCG for allowing such construction. “MCG is collecting tax, so they should supervise and regulate such constructions,” said Yadav, adding most of the land has been acquired for developing residential sectors, leaving lease rent as the main source of income for many villagers, who build houses just to lease them out.