Work has commenced on the demolition of Udyog Bhawan, one of the prominent government office complexes in the Central Vista area, as part of the Centre’s ambitious redevelopment programme. File photo for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: PTI
A massive fire tore through a settlement of nearly 600 tin sheds housing around 1,000 labourers, mostly migrants, on Wednesday (June 24, 2026) near the site where the now-demolished Nirman Bhawan once stood, the police said.The blaze, which broke out at 3 a.m. and gutted 36 structures, left labourers working on the Central Vista project without savings or belongings. “The fire may have originated from an electrical panel, possibly due to a short circuit, following which it spread rapidly to the nearby containers,” a police officer said. The exact cause of the fire will be established after a detailed probe, he added.Also read| Fire and furore: On fire accidents in IndiaMohammad Imtiaz Alam, from Begusarai, Bihar, had collected whatever little he could find after the fire and was leaving for home on Wednesday afternoon. “I came here two days ago, hoping to make a living. Instead, I have lost whatever little savings I had,” he said. Collecting their belongings from the blackened containers, some of the workers were moved to the footpath along the Seva Teerth metro station. Others were given accommodation inside the newly built CPWD office, without electricity and any other amenities.Rizwan Khan from Surat, Gujarat, was standing barefoot on the concrete floor of Central Vista. “No phone, no clothes, no footwear is left. I do not even have money to go back home now,” he said. He had come to the site only on Tuesday. “I had fought with my father to come here. I do not know what I will tell him now,” he added. The workers are paid around ₹1,000 per week by their contractors for 12-hour daily work.Shadab, 17, also from Bihar, said he would go to Nizammuddin dargah to find someone who could help him connect back home. “I hope to find a phone so that I can call home and ask them to send some money,” he said. He had earned some ₹1,700 in the one-and-a-half weeks he had worked at the site which were lost to the fire.According to the workers, the electricity department had been called multiple times over the past few weeks to oversee the electricity panels at the site. They had complained to the department on Tuesday as well but no response was received. “The site is situated directly behind the Ministry of External Affairs and is minutes away from the Ministry of Labour and Employment. For days leading up to the incident, workers had repeatedly raised red flags regarding frequent short circuits in the structure. They had formally alerted the supervisor, contractors, and the broader project administration but to no avail. The site electrician refused to fix the problem as there were no direct orders to address the issue,” said Sucheta De, vice-president, All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU). Published - June 24, 2026 08:06 am IST
