Flouting regulations, collapsing buildings

A building collapses in a prominent residential and student neighbourhood in India's capital city. Officials are suspended. A hospital fire claims lives. Investigations follow. A flooded basement becomes a death trap. Committees are constituted, assurances are issued. The state's regulatory machinery seems to become active only after lives are lost. The real task is to ensure that what is built is safe, compliant and resilient. The latest building collapse in Delhi's Satya Niketan area on Sunday is yet another dire warning that real development means sticking to regulatory standards and ensuring corners are not cut.

Our cities do not lack building codes, fire regulations, drainage plans or inspection procedures. What they lack is certainty that these rules will be enforced. Flyovers, towers, roads and redevelopment projects are visible markers of growth. The less visible infrastructure of a functioning city is competent inspection, working drainage, structural safety, functioning fire exits, and regulators with the capacity and will to act. There will always be incentives to add a non-compliant extra floor, ignore a safety requirement, convert a basement or use substandard material. That is precisely why regulation exists.

Last month, Master Plan for Delhi 2047, which envisages greater density, redevelopment and higher FAR, was cleared. The irony is difficult to miss. The city is planning to accommodate more people even as existing rules are flouted. Development ambitions are racing ahead. Regulatory capacity must keep pace. Real development is not measured by how much gets built, but by whether it's safe and comfortable. That requires regulation that works, and consequences for those flouting it and allowing it to be flouted.