Faulty Towers

Delhi’s latest building collapse is another reminder to revamp the revenue and administrative models of our cities

A five-storey building collapsed in Delhi on Saturday, killing six people and leaving 10 injured. It wasn’t old, but poorly built. And the owner was adding another floor to it, for additional rent. It was, plainly, a house of cards, so its falling was no accident. What was it then? Negligence is a ready answer. But it denies culpability. Civic officials, whose job is to keep an eye on construction, groundwater extraction, sewage, power connections, etc somehow didn’t notice this 50-ft block. A giant walked through the park unnoticed.

Fact is, it wasn’t the only building of its kind in the neighbourhood, and cities across India are full of them now. What’s going on isn’t negligence but wilful connivance. But why? Why are unplanned neighbourhoods increasingly becoming dense commercial and residential hubs? The answer lies in our failure to plan cities as engines of economic growth. India is a growing economy, and demand for built-up area is rising rapidly. Per a World Bank estimate, urban India will house 60cr people and produce 70% of GDP within a decade. But that can’t happen if policies throttle the growth of cities.

This is evident from the horizontal spread of our cities this century. Builders and buyers have been moving to the suburbs – or to unplanned neighbourhoods where officials look the other way – because they are cheaper. Space within cities is costly because it is scarce, but the scarcity is manmade. There are limits on the percentage of a plot that can be covered, and more limits on the number of floors that can be built. Where Singapore allows 2,500 sqft of floor space on a plot of 100 sqft, Delhi allows only up to 350 sqft.

This is an old problem that experts have repeatedly drawn attention to. This year’s Economic Survey said, “Cities are expected to deliver growth, productivity, and jobs, yet…Indian urban policy often reverses this logic.” So, many buyers and tenants are pushed towards shaky buildings in seedy areas, where another problem becomes apparent – fragmented governance. Indian civic bodies don’t earn enough revenue to meet their expenses, and multiplicity of authorities doesn’t allow them to take action even when violations – like the collapsed building – arise in plain sight. If we’re serious about fixing Indian cities, let’s start with their governance structure, so that authority and accountability are not in doubt.