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Shaken, but not sti rred!

Ravi Teja Sharma / New Delhi January 27, 2007

While real estate is booming in the country, are we really sensitised aboutearthquake resistant buildings?

Not many of us know that 59 per cent of the Indian land mass is vulnerable toearthquakes, yet most buildings across the country are not geared to handleearthquakes.

In the last 20 years, there have been eight damaging earthquakes across Indiaand the one that finally prompted the revision of the Indian Seismic BuildingCode in 2002 was the devastating earthquake in Bhuj, Gujarat, on January 26,2001.

One of the biggest lacunae in our system though is that the existing NationalBuilding Code (NBC) is just recommendatory in nature. A new earthquakecode had been incorporated earlier but still a lot of structures are notcompliant, says M Ramachandran, secretary, ministry of urban development.

The big question then is, do all builders comply by these codes, as thegovernments codes are only recommendatory in nature, not mandatory. Andhow many of us actually ask about earthquake safety when we go to buy ahouse?

By and large most reputed builders comply by the codes. They would not riskit and generally follow the norms, but that may not be true for smaller builders,some of whom might not even have sufficient know-ledge about earthquakesafety measures, says Uday Dharmadhikari, president, Construction ProjectManagement, Trammell Crow Meghraj.

Both Rohtas Goel, MD, Omaxe and Pradeep Jain, MD, Parsvnath Developers,confirm that all their buildings are fully compliant, at least upto life safety levels.

The risk perception is very low in our country. Our understanding ofearthquakes risks too is very low, says Rajeev Issar, programme associate,GoI-UNDP, Disaster Risk Management Programme.

The shallower the earthquake, the higher the destructive potential. India isprone to shallow earthquakes, he adds. Some of our major cities are inseismically active zones. Delhi and the whole of NCR is in Zone 4 whileMumbai, Chennai and Kolkata are in Zone 3.

Sandeep Donald Shah of Taylor Devices, a company dealing in retrofittingdevices, informs that there are three categories of earthquake resistantstructures.

THERE ARE FOUR SEISMIC ZONES IN INDIA

Zone 2 likely to be hit by earthquake of intensity 6 or below

Zone 3 intensity 7

Zone 4 intensity upto 8

Zone 5 intensity 9 and above

The first is earthquake resistant, fully operational (hospitals and other lifelinebuildings which need to be operational at all times should be in this category);then earthquake resistant, immediate occupancy (minimum non-structuraldamage, but building can still be used after an earthquake). And the last isearthquake resistant life safety (which is what has been recommended in thegovernment codes).

Life safety implies that in case of a major earthquake the total collapse of thebuilding should be prevented. This would help in minimising casualties. Afterthe earthquake, in case the damage to the building is above a threshold level, it

can be demolished and rebuilt.

The National Disaster Management Authority is setting up new guidelines toreduce the impact of earthquakes in the short and long-term.

At a workshop on earthquake resistant structures organised by the Omaxe

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Columnists Foundation, Professor A S Arya, national seismic advisor to the government ofIndia, points out that one of the biggest concerns today is that there is notenough trained manpower for earthquake resistant construction in the country.

Even the new flyovers coming up across Delhi and the metro project pillars areonly being built upto life safety standards and do not use high-end protection byway of shock transmission units, says Shah.

This means there is a possibility of communication lines getting blocked in caseof a disaster. He points out that it would cost only 1-2 per cent extra to makethese structures earthquake resistant at the time of construction.

According to Professor Arya, the extra cost of making a building earthquakeresistant is only 4-5 per cent and in areas which fall under zone 5 (which is thehighest), it could go upto 7-8 per cent of the project cost.

Retrofitting costs, on the other hand, could vary from 5-15 per cent dependingon a variety of factors. He cautions, No hospital in Delhi will be operational incase of an earthquake.

But there is hope. The ministry of home affairs along with USAID is supportinga company called GeoHazards International in partnering with the Delhigovernment to retrofit five lifeline buildings in Delhi.

This is part of a pilot project. GeoHazards, along with Delhi PWD, is retrofittingthe Delhi Secretariat building, the police headquarters, Guru Teg BahadurHospital in Shahdara, the divisional commissioners office near ISBT, andLudlow Castle School, also near ISBT. The hospital will be retrofitted up toimmediate occupancy levels while other buildings will be upto life safetystandards.

Hari Kumar, national coordinator, GeoHazards International, says that this isthe beginning of a process to retrofit lifeline buildings before an earthquakecomes, not after it has occurred, as has been done in the past.

GeoHazards is bringing in earthquake engineering experts from California(which has seen many devastating earthquakes in the past) to work with thebest in Delhi. A team of PWD engineers have also been trained.

The future should see the ministry of home affairs undertake the NationalEarthquake Risk Mitigation Project which will include retrofitting of lifelinebuildings in all districts across the country falling under seismic zone 4 or 5.

Also, a new retrofitting team will be instituted in PWD to take a look at existingbuildings and their seismic safety levels.

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