By Rohini Sridharan
A five storey building which was used as a boy’s Paying Guest (PG) accommodation has collapsed in Delhi, near Satya Niketan area on the afternoon of Sunday, September 6, 2026, killing seven people and leaving five others injured. The building had housed dozens of students in cramped, shared rooms.
Locally popular as “Hostel Daze”, is located near the South Campus of Delhi University, which is already infamous for its cramped neighbourhood of PG’s and budget student housing.
As per the reports, the structure was over 40-years old and was owned by a couple based in Gurugram. At the time of collapse, it is said that renovation work was underway on the ground floor.
Rescue teams from the Delhi Fire Service, local police and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) worked over 27 hours on a rescue operation, which was declared complete on Monday.
Police have since registered an FIR against the owners, identified as Hariram and his wife, alleging that they had constructed additional floors on the building without authorisation. The FIR states that the extra floors, combined with the load of the ongoing construction, exceeded the building’s structural capacity. Both have been sent to 14 days of judicial custody.
As informed by the officials via reports, the investigation will further examine the building’s construction history, the permissions it held, the condition of its foundation, and whether local authorities had received any prior complaints about its safety.
The collapse has drawn renewed attention to the largely unregulated PG housing sector in Delhi. Areas such as Satya Niketan have a high density of such accommodations, many of which house more residents than they are built for, with limited oversight of ventilation, structural safety or fire exits. Civic bodies and student groups have called for a citywide safety audit of similar buildings in the wake of the incident.
Authorities said the investigation into the building’s construction record is ongoing.