They stressed that safety checks must begin before construction, with three critical factors – soil investigation, structural design and construction material – that must be assessed before a building comes up.
With structural safety under scrutiny after Sunday’s deadly building collapse in Satya Niketan, experts said the issue goes beyond violations of building norms and unauthorised construction.
Compliance, however, has remained limited. Directions for such audits have also been issued by the Delhi high court, followed by a public notice mandating immediate audits of structures built before 2001 and of assembly and institutional buildings.
The Delhi government has repeatedly said in recent months that it will introduce a structural audit policy.
“There are different kinds of foundations for different kinds of soil.
Sanjay Pant, former deputy director general of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and a member of the committee that revised the National Building Code (NBC), said soil investigation determines the foundation requirements of a building. A soil investigation is used to establish the load-bearing capacity of the site and determine the size and type of foundation required,” Pant said. Divya Kush, former president of the Indian Institute of Architects, said proper soil investigation could make construction possible even in difficult terrain. “A multi-storey building is possible in a desert or even in the middle of the sea as long as proper soil investigation is done,” she said. Experts said this is particularly relevant to Delhi, where construction takes place across areas with varying ground conditions. Soil investigation, they said, should be completed before foundations are laid rather than becoming a document sought at a later stage.
