Rule Violations Massive in Building Construction Sector, Officials Failed to Act

Hyderabad: Four floors of the collapsed structure in Nizam Colony in Tolichowki were constructed illegally, officials said. The structure was built in ‘basement plus six floors’ mode. An additional penthouse was also built illegally.

The scaffolding collapsed on Thursday and two workers died at the scene. The workers working in the upper part of the penthouse on the sixth floor did not have safety equipment to protect themselves.

The building was built on approximately 310 square meters of land. There was permission from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation for construction of only two floors. The rest were grown illegally.

Specifically, a demolition notice was served on the builder in December 2025. He was asked for an explanation as to why the illegally constructed additional floors should not be demolished. Thereupon, the work was stopped for a while but was later restarted.

In a belated response on Thursday, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation commissioner RV Karnan ordered a criminal case against the builder. The building is expected to be sealed on Friday.

GHMC’s urban planning wing has failed to pay attention to many areas where illegal structures have mushroomed in recent years. Worse, neither the GHMC nor the labor department has made any effort to ensure periodic inspection of such sites and the safety of workers.

In the Tolichowki incident too, workers were not provided with safety equipment; This was a gross violation of the rules.

Police began searching for the builder on Thursday, but he is on the run. GHMC officials lodged a police complaint against him.

The city is spread across GHMC, Cyberabad Municipal Corporation and Malkajgiri Municipal Corporation areas. More than 50 per cent of the buildings within the GHMC jurisdiction deviated from the approved building plan and the authorities mostly ignored it.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, GHMC officials claimed that despite political pressure last year, the town planning wing had made many efforts to check rule violations. “In addition to the major reshuffle in staff and officials in this wing, as many as 27 temporary engineers have also been removed from their posts for not checking code violations by builders,” an official said.

These engineers, who graduated from the National Construction Academy, were hired by GHMC on outsourcing basis four years ago during the Bharat Rashtra Samithi government. Their primary mission was to detect illegal construction within their jurisdiction. It was claimed that these engineers took bribes and remained silent instead of reporting illegal construction to the department officer. However, the collusion of senior officials was also clearly visible.