Apartment collapse injury lawyers remark that a crude brick apartment building housing around 200 people came crashing down in New Delhi after unusually heavy monsoon rains flooded the basement and helped weaken the foundation. At least 66 people died in the New Delhi apartment building collapse, and at least 72 more received injuries.
The 15-year old brick apartment building sat near the Yamuna River in India, where soft, moist soils are too weak and unstable to support tall buildings. The brick apartment building had two more floors than legally permitted at the time of its collapse, and residents said the landlord was in the process of adding one more. The landlord, Amrit Singh, fled the area immediately following the brick apartment building collapse.
Our apartment collapse injury lawyers note that India’s growth has spurred growth in real estate prices in New Delhi, one of India’s largest economic centers. Because of the money to be made from property, many landlords add extra, illegal floors to their buildings. These landlords often poorly maintain their buildings. With space at a premium, few people will complain if they can find an affordable place to live in the city.
The collapsed brick apartment building was part of a crowded, lower income area called Lalita Park. One building resident who saw the apartment building collapse before his eyes as he walked home from the park said that the entire structure collapsed in seconds like a pile of sand. The narrow alleyways of the congested district prevented police and ambulances from reaching the site of the brick apartment building collapse with any speed.
Officials investigating the disaster said that the cause of the apartment building collapse wasn’t immediately clear but that heavy monsoon rains appeared to have weakened its foundation considerably. Inadequate foundations and poor construction materials often receive the blame for building collapses in India.
A New Delhi official blamed poor construction and maintenance as well as monsoon rains for this apartment building collapse that killed more than 60. She said that officials would look into whether landlord Amrit Singh had obtained the proper permits to add the additional floors on the building. (Source: cbsnews.com/world)
To learn more about the startlingly high rate of fatalities from building collapse injuries in India, read the linked article by our apartment collapse injury lawyers.