In The Aftermath Of The Nepal Quake, CSE Points Out Lapses In Building Regulations In India.
The condition and quality of Indian building stock is poor when it comes to seismic performance, say CSE researchers. India has many instances of buildings collapsing even without an Earthquake laxity in enforcing regulations is to blame In Delhi, 70-80 per cent of buildings violate regulations; civic Agencies cite lack of human power as reason for not monitoring.
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has found that in the last 25 years more than 25,000 human fatalities were caused primarily by collapse of buildings during earthquakes. “The condition and quality of Indian building stock is poor when it comes to seismic performance — in fact, the observed performances of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings are highly unsatisfactory,” saidAvikal Somvanshi, senior research associate at CSE.
Somvanshi said that during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, RC buildings collapsed at an earthquake of just 6 on the Richter scale, when a well-designed RC building is expected to collapse only when an earthquake is 7.5 or higher on the Richter scale. The damage caused to these buildings is unreasonably high compared to any other country for similar level of ground-shaking. Thus, the housing risk in the country should be minimized to reduce losses to life and property in future earthquakes.
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