8/12/2019 Times Property PUNE - 02June2007

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3 6A R E AWATCH REALTYNEWS 7 DESIGNC U E S

The Times of India, Pune, June 2, 2007

The Union Home Ministry hasset June 30 as the deadline forcompliance to the new codewhereby all new residentialand commercial multi-storied

buildings shall be earthquake resistant,incorporating a model techno-legalframework, new building codes andmodel town planning byelaws to conformto global norms.

The government has also called formaking existing buildings earthquakeresistant through retrofitting (strength-ening of existing structures).The latestguidelines indicate there is a need formuch higher earthquake protection lev-els than is offered by the existing Bureauof Indian Standard (BIS) codes.

City experts have acclaimed themove; however, they have some words of caution on requisite measures to betaken in order to comply with interna-tional norms of earthquake resistance.

According to Geologist Dr. N.J. Pawar,Department of Geology, University of Pune,"Technical characterisation of theland (foundation conditions- availabilityof hard and soft rocks,fracturing, joint-ing, weathering condition of rocks and soon relate with the strength of the rocks)is vital before such lands are utilised forresidential or commercial buildings butunfortunately, this kind of implementa-tion is not done by the concerned author-ities. Technical characterisation of landis done to understand the seismicresponse of the land - that is,how thebuildings on the land will behave if an

earthquake occurs."Pawar adds, "Pune city is in Zone 3with probability of an earthquake of themagnitude of 6.0 to 6.5 on Richter scale.We cannot easily forget the damage anddestruction of the Latur quake measur-ing 6.4 on the Richter scale, or the Koynaearthquake, which was 6 on the Richter

scale. Considering the past, we cannottake things lightly. It is a moot point todecide whether Pune buildi ngs are readyto sustain a quake impact of 6 to 6.5 onRichter scale."

City experts say that constructinghigh-rises on swamps, marshy tracts,areas reclaimed below the sea and salt-pans land may prove to be risky. Suchwetlands have the ability to transmitearthquake vibrations very fast.

Sandeep Donald Shah, Director,Taylor Devices India, one of the largestcompanies in the world supplying earth-quake protection products, believes Punebuildings cannot withstand the impact of a quake of 6 to 6.5 on the Richter scale.This,he says, is because these buildingsdo not have 'Dampers'- (a mechanicaldevice, akin to the shock absorber of acar but much larger, that absorbs theenergy released by an earthquake so thatbuildings where they are installed are notstructurally damaged.)

"Dampers should be installed forhigh-rise buildings.Dampers willincrease the building cost by Rs.150 to 200per sq.ft. Buildings get damaged duringquakes as energy supplied by the quaketo the building causes damage of struc-tural members," he says.

Shah, himself a Masters inEarthquake and Civil EngineeringDynamics, from the University of Sheffield, says, "Even if the BIS codes arecomplied to the fullest, occupants of highrises will not be in a position to continueto occupy them after a major earthquake.

This is because the existing codes,whichare currently flaunted as "EarthquakeResistant", give an impression to the end-users that the building structure isdesigned to be Earthquake Resistant-Immediate Occupancy [ER-IO] standards.ERIO standards are, however, such thateven if there is a major earthquake,such

buildings can continue to be occupied,post earthquake," Shah says. He pointsout that there is a need to comply withinternational norms for earthquake pro-tection. USA, Japan are highly seismicbut buildings are designed keeping inmind that if there is a major quake, therewill not be damage to property.

Shah has an interesting story torelate. Mexico City, he says, is consideredto be the worst seismic site in the worldas it was built on a dried lake bed. TorreMayor ( seen at right ), a 55-storey buildingin Mexico city, was constructed usingdampers. When a quake measuring 7.6 onthe Richter scale struck on January 22,2003, there was widespread damage inMexico City. However, Torre Mayor sur-vived without a scratch as the dampersabsorbed 70-80% of the earthquakeenergy.

President of Promoters and BuildersAssociation of Pune,Lalit Kumar Jainwho is also civil engineer, says, "Dampersare necessary for high-rise buildings, butonly in quake prone zones where theprobability is higher. There will be anincrease in the cost, if the revised codesare complied."

Most reputed developers in the citystate that they adhere to BIS codes andwould take all steps necessary to ensurethat they adhere to the new norms aswell, though they were unwilling to com-ment on the specifics of the new codesaying that they would need to study thenorms in detail. They however expressedthe fear that the norms could easily add

about Rs 150-200 per sq.ft. to the con-struction cost, leading to a further hikein property prices.

But given a choice between life anddeath - as earthquake situations couldwell be - this is one cost that the buyerwould not complain too much about.

Page 3: Performance levels

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