A five-storey residential building collapsed in Delhi, killing five people and injuring several others. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

In the aftermath of the collapse, authorities were directed to inspect student accommodations for safety. Building owners were arrested and several municipal officials in charge of the area were suspended. Earlier, as reported by the Hindustan Times, authorities had flagged safety concerns in the neighbourhood months before — after 23 people died in a fire at another building.

The state of India's cities

As the world's most populous country, India can feel like a place where life can be startlingly cheap, and people die every day in tragedies that could have been prevented. According to analysis of government data by the Times of India, between 2020 and 2004 nearly 33,000 deaths occurred due to building collapses, fires or people falling into pits and maintenance holes.

The collapse in Delhi has prompted questions, once again, about the state of urban infrastructure in India's biggest cities. At a time when the country is undertaking a rapid infrastructure boom — new airports, high-speed expressways, luxury residential towers — daily life in cities like Delhi, Mumbai or Bengaluru appears to be deteriorating.

Indian cities are not walkable, they rank among the worst for air quality, construction is poorly regulated, seasonal flooding is common and waste management remains under pressure. These challenges are only going to increase; the World Bank expects India's urban population to double, going up to 951 million, by 2050. More than half of the urban infrastructure the country will need by then has yet to be built, it said.

What experts say

According to experts, Indian cities don't lack rules as much as the political will and institutional machinery to enforce them.

For infrastructure veteran Vinayak Chatterjee, one solution lies in giving urban local bodies more power. He points to a constitutional amendment from 1992 that was meant to strengthen municipalities and give them greater responsibility over urban planning. "But it remains largely unimplemented — in spirit and will. It is a serious matter that affects the very fabric of our urban existence," said Chatterjee, founder of the Infravision Foundation.

Rahul Goel, an expert on transportation safety and a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, believes the problem with India's roads begins with on-street parking. "People are using public space for personal use. Everything becomes better when you remove on-street parking," he said, arguing that freeing up roads would make pedestrians and cyclists safer, reduce traffic jams and make walking easier.

In other cities in the global south, from Bangkok to Manila to Cape Town, one cannot just park their car on the road to run errands, Goel said. He described it as a governance failure, saying there is a need to create more parking spaces and perhaps have civil defense personnel or municipal workers enforce fines.

"Our streets are self-run," Goel said. "That's why they are in complete disarray." He pointed to the Delhi Metro as an example of a space where people follow rules and things are orderly. "When rules are enforced, people follow them."

The problem at construction sites

The same gap between rules and enforcement is evident at construction sites.

India has detailed guidelines for construction approvals, including how traffic must be managed, what signage must be put up, and creating paths for pedestrians. But compliance remains a significant problem, says Geetam Tiwari, emeritus professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. In an audit of construction sites on highways, including bridges, Tiwari and her colleagues found widespread violations. Contractors had a financial incentive to complete projects quickly with payments being tied to the pace of construction, she said, adding that penalties for violations were low enough that it was cheaper to simply pay the fine than make fixes.

For unsafe buildings and unauthorised renovations, Tiwari said, the solution also requires bringing stakeholders together: resident associations, landlords, lessees and local authorities to conduct audits, raise awareness and penalise contractors who violate safety requirements. Actions, she said, that should not wait for the next tragedy.

In the aftermath of the Delhi case, the high court has directed authorities to inspect student accommodations for safety.