New Delhi: A month after a building collapse in Satya Niketan left students worried about the safety of their accommodation, reports of tremors across the city Tuesday night briefly revived those fears. Although the initial alarm soon gave way to relief, for students living in the area’s tightly packed paying guest accommodations and rented rooms, even mild tremors were enough to trigger the memories of the collapse.The episode briefly brought the question of building safety back into focus in a neighbourhood where academic schedules, rent agreements and proximity to colleges make moving out difficult. On Tuesday night, many residents came out onto narrow lanes. “I rushed downstairs. A few other students had already come out, and we stood outside for some time,” said Rahul, a third-year student of Delhi University. “After what happened here last month, the first thought was whether the building was safe.”Meenal, a student of Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, said students in lanes 2 and 3 stepped outside. “There is still a lot of fear,” she said. At the same time, she added, repeated concerns over safety have meant that some residents are gradually becoming desensitised to the risks around them.For women students, the tremors revived a different worry: whether they would be able to get out of their PGs quickly in an emergency. Meenal said several girls’ PGs enforced strict night-time curfews. Recalling an earlier earthquake, she said a friend living in a PG had wanted to step outside after feeling tremors but was allegedly told by the warden that the gate could not be opened because she did not have the keys. “Girls were restricted inside the buildings because of their curfew timings. How unsafe is that in times of emergency?” Meenal said.The building collapse in Satya Niketan, a congested student hub adjoining DU’s South Campus, had claimed seven lives and raised concerns over the condition and structural safety of buildings in the area.For some students, the immediate instinct after the collapse was to leave. Meenal, whose parents live in Noida, was at home when the building came down. She said her parents were reluctant to let her return to Satya Niketan. Others shifted out temporarily. Hitesh, a Sri Venkateswara College student from Bihar, said he spent nearly a month at a friend’s PG because he did not want to live alone immediately. His parents, too, had urged him to return home.But leaving Satya Niketan permanently has proved more complicated. Hitesh said many tenants were bound by rental agreements with lock-in periods that could extend up to 11 months. The collapse also came in the middle of the academic session, making an immediate shift impractical. For now, he has returned, but plans to look for another area next semester.Himadri from Maitreyi College faces a similar dilemma. She has considered moving out, but shifting midway through the session has not been easy.For Shagun, whose parents live in Indore, proximity to college ultimately outweighed the unease. “There is no option but to stay here as this is closer to our colleges,” she said. Her own PG, she added, appeared to be in a relatively better condition, giving her enough reassurance to continue staying there.A month on, the student neighbourhood has largely slipped back into its familiar routine. But Tuesday night was a reminder that while daily life may have resumed, the unease over the buildings they call home has not entirely gone away.
