- Large parts of Shimla, including 25 per cent of the crowded Old Town, are sinking under the weight of too many buildings and people, and choked drainage and sewerage systems
- The town, built for 25,000 people, now has a population of nearly 3 lakh
- As against the recommended density of 450 persons per sq hectare, it has 2,500-3,500 people
- Some 90 per cent of central Shimla is built on unstable, 60-degree slopes, and covered with multi-storeyed buildings, though building on slopes more than 45 degrees is unsafe and now prohibited
- Most multi-storeyed buildings do not follow the regulation of being built on pillars resting on rock strata because it escalates cost
- The most prominent violators include the nine-storey High Court, the new State Civil Secretariat, the Snowdon Hospital and the new five-storey Congress Bhavan