Plan afoot to audit 50+ year-old DDA buildings

New Delhi: Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday expressed his anguish over the tragic incident in Delhi's Satya Niketan and said that the government is thinking of a plan for conducting a safety audit of all buildings under the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) that are more than 50 years old. Calling the incident 'heart-wrenching', Khattar said that measures must be taken to make sure that such incidents do not take place in the future and added that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) must also take suitable action at its level. 'The incident that took place in Satya Niketan yesterday has caused immense sorrow. To make sure that such incidents don't take place in future, the MCD should also work at its level,' Khattar said. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, he said, is contemplating a framework wherein all the DDA buildings that are more than 50 years old will have to go through a detailed safety audit. Khattar added that there should also be a mechanism put in place for conducting periodical safety audit of the buildings — at intervals of 10 years, five years and three years, depending on their age.