New Delhi:
A five-storey building in Delhi’s Satya Niketan came crashing down in seconds on Sunday afternoon, killing seven people and injuring six others. The building, which was around 50 years old, housed nearly 75 students in paying guest rooms.
NDTV’s AI reconstruction video of the incident shows how exactly the collapse happened, turning an ordinary day into a tragedy.
Around 1:30 pm, the building collapsed without any immediate warning. The video shows that the building was nearly 50-foot-tall structure on a plot measuring about 55 square yards was reduced to rubble. It trapped dozens of people underneath the debris.
The building in question was reconstructed using AI in the video, using available data. It shows the building has multiple storeys, was 50 years old, and packed with several paying guest rooms.
Preliminary information suggests the collapse is believed to have started in the basement, where repair work was underway. The video also reconstructed the structure of the basement, showing how the building may have collapsed.
The building had reportedly started tilting several months before the incident, which most residents did not know about.
A pillar in the basement became weak during the repair work. Even as the building leaned dangerously, the repair work continued. The video shows workers continuing their work while the building was tilting. As it lost its strength, it was no longer able to properly support the weight of the building, which caused the floors above to become unstable.
Soil was being dug out without installing jacks or temporary structural supports. Then, continuous rainfall led to water accumulation in the basement.
The video further shows the exact pillar that became weak and started giving way. The failure at the base started moving upwards, with floor after floor starting to lose their footing. This caused the collapse, with the building turning to rubbles in moments.
The case registered in the case alleges that the owners, Hariram Bansal, also known as Gupta, and his brother, added four floors to the old building to earn more money through rent.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said preliminary findings indicate that water had accumulated in the basement and that the combination of water and repair work on the ageing structure led to the collapse. “Approximately 80% of the debris has been cleared; only the rubble from the basement remains,” Gupta said on Monday.
Delhi minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa also said that the basement work may have triggered the collapse. Investigators are now checking the condition of the pillar, the basement and the repair work to find out exactly what went wrong.
