A three-storey building under construction collapsed in Old Delhi’s Chawri Bazaar on Thursday, killing two people and injuring four, while several others were feared trapped under the debris, police said. The incident has triggered a political dispute over whether repeated building safety audits in Delhi are translating into preventive action on the ground.
The collapse occurred in the Chawri Bazaar-Chandni Chowk area, one of Old Delhi’s densely built urban districts. The structure was under construction when it came down, bringing debris into a congested neighbourhood and prompting rescue and response operations. Police confirmed the fatalities and injuries in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
The Aam Aadmi Party said the collapse raised questions about the effectiveness of safety audits ordered for buildings across Delhi. Saurabh Bharadwaj, president of the AAP’s Delhi unit, asked why building collapses were occurring “every month” despite multiple audits. His comments were made in a post on X after the Chawri Bazaar incident.
Bharadwaj alleged that the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had conducted several safety audits but failed to prevent dangerous construction and building failures. He further alleged that multiple departments had collected bribes instead of taking effective action. These allegations were made by the AAP leader and were not independently established in the report.
The AAP leader also alleged that bribery had spread to the Fire Department and sub-divisional magistrates under Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s government, in addition to the Delhi Police and the MCD. The report did not include a response from the Delhi government, the MCD, the Fire Department or the SDM administration to these allegations.
The incident places attention on the gap between identifying structural risks and enforcing corrective measures. A safety audit can flag unsafe conditions, but the supplied report does not establish what action, if any, was ordered after earlier audits, which authorities were responsible for enforcement, or whether the collapsed building had been inspected before construction began.
Those questions are especially significant in a dense market district where buildings, construction activity, narrow access routes and large numbers of workers and visitors operate in close proximity. The collapse also raises immediate concerns about how construction permissions, structural safety, emergency access and enforcement are coordinated between municipal and other government departments.
The immediate confirmed facts remain the collapse, the location, the building’s three-storey under-construction status, two deaths and four injuries. Police and rescue agencies were dealing with reports that several people remained trapped under the debris. Further official information is required on the rescue operation, the cause of the collapse, the building’s approvals and whether any safety violations had been recorded before the incident.
