Over 900 govt residences in Delhi in 'dangerous' state: Central Public Works Department

NEW DELHI: More than 900 central government residences in Delhi have been declared "dangerous" by the CPWD while another 4,480 houses are in a dilapidated state.

Mumbai comes second with 704 dilapidated houses according to details provided by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to a parliamentary panel.

The central agency has also revealed that the number of dilapidated houses in Kolkata is 40 and there are eight such accommodations in Nagpur.

As many as 328 houses or flats in the capital which have been declared dangerous by the CPWD are in Mohammedpur, while another 304 are on the Kali Bari Marg, considered to be placed in the heart of the city.

Ninety accommodations that have been declared dangerous are on the adjacent areas of Arambagh and Chitra Gupt road, while another 70 are on Probyn or Lancer road.

There are 67 dangerous accommodations in the Minto road complex and 20 in Kasturba Nagar. Lodhi colony, Lodhi road complex, East Kidwai Nagar, Lakshmi Bai Nagar, Sarojini Nagar and Andrews Ganj happen to be other colonies where government residences have been declared dangerous.

The CPWD also told the panel that most of the bungalows in the Lutyen's Bungalow Zone, where ministers, MPs and who's who of the country reside, have been found to be unsafe with respect to latest codes for earthquake resistant structures in a survey.

It said that the Urban Development ministry is aware of the matter and it is proposed to take up redevelopment of these bungalows in a phased manner.

The CPWD also gave details of encroached government land to the parliamentary standing committee on Urban Development which presented its report earlier this week.

As per the details, nearly 2,28,050 square metres of CPWD land has been illegally occupied in Delhi while its around 24,390 sq m in Mumbai.

In Kolkata, the number of encroachments is two and they occupy 53,917 sq m. Two encroachments in Sikkim have held an area of 2,100 sq m.

In Himachal Pradesh, nine encroachments have held CPWD land measuring around 2,274 sq m.

CPWD said that land in other areas which has been encroached include 72 sq m in Kochi (Kerala) and around 14.63 sq m in Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

The agency told the parliamentary committee that as on July 29, total area under encroachment was 3,10,818.95 sq m.