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How safe are Gujarat's houses?

Haiti quake a grim reminder of 2001 devastation; many buildings in the city may not be able to withstand another earthquake.

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Many existing buildings in Ahmedabad might crumble and kill many people  if another earthquake of similar intensity as that of the January 26, 2001 in the city, happens to strike again. The Haiti quake, which has claimed 1,50,000 lives, is  a grim reminder of the Gujarat 2001 earthquake.

Soon after the 2001 killer quake, the state government's competent authorities (AMC and AUDA) appointed the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) to conduct a survey and identify the buildings that were affected and required to be pulled down. Following the survey which examined around 7000 buildings in Ahmedabad, around 19 buildings were declared badly affected and needed to be pulled down while the rest of the buildings were certified OK to be left standing. However the certification did not mean that these buildings could withstand another earthquake of similar intensity. Architects who conducted the survey have asserted that even these buildings which are left standing might not withstand another earthquake with similar intensity.

Faculty of CEPT, RJ Shah who was one of the architects who conducted the survey said, "The survey conducted was called Rapid Assessment Survey. As the name itself connotes, the survey was conducted at a fast pace based on visuals. The assessment did not take into account the strengths of the buildings to endure another earthquake of a similar intensity."

Shah said, "It took only around half an hour or one hour to survey a building."

He explained, "The aftershocks of the earthquake are always weaker than the main earthquake. Considering the possibilities of such lesser intense aftershocks to occur then, the survey was quickly conducted to examine if the buildings that had remained could withstand them or not. The preliminary evaluation considered only the buildings capacity of vertical load or normal load of occupancy; however it did not put into consideration its capacity for lateral loads."

Irrespective of a whether a building has suffered cracks or not in the previous earthquake, they might be prone to collapse in another high intensity earthquake.  Shah said, "Looks are deceptive and there is no way a resident of a building could judge their safety. To be sure of the complete safety of the buildings they stay in, residents should jointly consult a structural engineer to conduct a detailed survey which is the only way to confirm the safety."

Talking about the safety measures that should be considered while construction to make buildings earthquake resistant, Shah said, "While designing a building, if the earthquake resistant design code of India based on different seismic zones are taken into consideration, the building should be safe enough to resist earthquake of considerable degrees."

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