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India Real Estate - Buildings that will cause Thousands of Deaths in an Quake

By

Sandeep Donald Shah

M.Sc. Earthuake and !i"il Engineering Dyna#ics $ %ni"ersity of Sheffield &%'(

Last two years has seen an increased number of conferences and workshops on

earthquake risk mitigation and this has resulted in valued interaction amongst members of

the scientific/engineering community specializing in earthquake related issues. Most ofthese formal gatherings have aimed at better understanding of earthquake effects on the

built environment and the mitigation techniques that need to be adopted.

The engineering fraternity has been unanimous in identifying the building category which

is considered the most vulnerable amongst all of the engineered buildings in our country

today - !uildings on "tilts#. $ simpler e%planation would be buildings that have an open

ground floor area and which on most occasions are used as car park.

&onstructing multi storey buildings with open ground floor is a common practice in all

cities as the ground floor car park area is not counted in the building '$(/'") by the

municipality while sanctioning the plans.

)f not all ma*ority of the buildings on stilts will collapse in the event of a ma*or quake

whether it is zone +, or . To make matters worse all of these buildings are multi storey

and hence the casualty rate would be much higher when compared to a low rise building.

The fatal casualties due to collapse of this single building type would be in thousands.

hat happened to buildings in $hmedabad when an earthquake struck !hu* is a live

testimony.

0ne may ask is the 1overnment aware of this grave problem and if so what#s it doing

about it2 3owever the answer is not as simple as even though the 1overnment is fully

conversant with the problem it is so massive that most feel it is an issue easier brushed

under the carpet rather than have to deal with it.

The irony of the matter is that even though we are not ready to deal with this issue which

has the potential of becoming a nightmare *ust yet, with each passing day it keeps getting

bigger as more of the similar unsafe building stock is getting added to our cities.

$ few months back a formal study was initiated to look into the gravity of the matter and

a core team of seismic e%perts from ))T-(ourkee conducted the survey in the 4ational

&apital (egion to study this aspect. The findings are truly astounding and would be aneye opener even to the 1overnment. The survey studied the recently constructed multi-

story buildings, most having been constructed in the last - years. $ll buildings were

found to be constructed on stilts and none of them had additional shear walls in the open

ground story to compensate for the stiffness deficiency. $mongst these 567 were found

to contain additional design deficiencies and thus can be said to be potentially dangerous.

57 of the buildings had more than one configurational deficiency in addition to the stilt

problem.

$ll of these can be said to be potential time bombs waiting to e%plode.

The problem isn#t insurmountable if one has the resolve and approaches it in a systematicand time bound manner. To start with the 1overnment will have to generate awareness

amongst the masses through print and electronic media that all buildings on stilts be

prima-fascia considered unsafe until a safety certificate is issued by a structural

consultant. )n most )ndian cities multistory buildings are constructed and continue to be

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constructed on 8 to 9: inch thick columns which are highly inadequate even by ;one +

standards. These buildings will come crashing down in the event of a ma*or quake.

The 1overnment should then ensure that the owners/occupants are guided to having a

structural audit done for their building so as to positively identify those at risk that will

need structural retrofit to upgrade.

!ased on the computer analysis the engineer can recommend a retrofit methodologywhich can then be handed over to the owners of the building for implementation. 0nce

this process is completed the responsibility of making the building safe should rest with

the owners. $s an incentive the 1overnment can evaluate the possibility of ta% incentives

on the amount spent on retrofit.

0ne of the administrative issues that requires attention at the highest level is the perfect

understanding and co-ordination between the Ministry of 3ome $ffairs which is

responsible for