An old, single-story building in the quiet residential area of Milan Garden in northeast Delhi’s Harsh Vihar collapsed when construction work was on to add another floor on Sunday, October 25, evening.
Two men, a father-son duo, died after two slabs of the building collapsed. The deceased were identified as Chanderpal, 60, and Vijay Kumar, 33. They were trapped under the debris and recovered by search parties from under the debris shortly before sunrise on Monday, October 26. They were rushed to the nearby Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital and declared dead on arrival. They were both locals of Street No. 14.
The collapse happened when workers were trying to put a new concrete slab for an additional floor. Within seconds, two floors crumbled into a mountain of dust and concrete and buried the father-son duo.
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Emergency calls were made around 6:46 pm, which led to a long 12-hour rescue operation. Two fire brigade trucks, two ambulances and a crane arrived at the site to help with the rescue operation. Several rescuers including National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Delhi Fire Service personnel, Police and Civil Defence volunteers worked tirelessly.
“The rescue operation continued for nearly 14 hours before being called off. While the operation has concluded for now, teams will remain deployed at the site as a precaution,” said Divisional Fire Officer Ravinder Singh.
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Delhi ministers Kapil Mishra and Ashish Sood were among the public representatives who visited the site to review the rescue operation. Mishra called the incident unfortunate. “All relevant agencies are fully mobilised. This is, without a doubt, an unfortunate incident, and the circumstances surrounding its occurrence will certainly be investigated,” he said.
This tragic incident comes just weeks after similar fatal building collapse incidents across Delhi, including the collapse at Satya Niketan. In densely packed colonies, additional floors get erected over aging foundations without basic engineering assessments, leaving working families to bear the immense risks of living and working around unsafe structures.
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Police have confirmed that legal action has been taken against the owner of the Harsh Vihar property, Manoj Kumar. He is now under investigation for structural faults and possibly breaking building regulations.
Clean-up crews started clear the remaining concrete from Milan Garden on Monday morning.
