Bangalore homes can be standing on quicksand

There is an acute shortage of sand used in construction, and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has now disclosed that it has received several complaints of poor-quality construction in the city. So if you are in the process of buying a home, there are reasons to be extra careful.

While the sand used in construction ought to have binding properties, the ‘filter sand’ that is cheaper and more readily available has a larger proportion of clay, and a lesser binding ability.

It is often acquired from artificial water bodies, unlike the sand used in construction, which is sourced from rivers.

Property buyers often have no clue about different types of sand that could be used in construction, and the quality of the sand used is near impossible to check for the ordinary buyer, once construction is complete.

Neither the government nor real estate businessmen conduct such checks in the normal course, and property buyers making a lifetime’s investment might find that they have paid up for something not quite sturdy, as walls begin to develop cracks and the structure reveals weakness.

To check the use of poor quality sand in construction, the standing committee on major works of the BBMP is all set to propose to the state government that quality checks be made mandatory for high rise buildings.

The checks should also, according to the proposal, be conducted by a third party with no vested interests.

“Without quality tests, no occupancy certificate (OC) ought to be issued to the builder. We have received many complaints of filter sand being used in buildings, especially in the buildings coming up in new Bangalore areas,” said corporator (Nagpura) S Harish, also a member of the BBMP standing committee on major works.

Harish said that the Palike plans to conduct surprise checks at the sand lorry stands. This would help the BBMP know whether sand that is transported to construction sites is indeed of the required quality. “Structures built with filter sand could leave the masonry weak, and over the years, the structure is likely to collapse. Contractors find filter sand easier to use as it costs less than sand from rivers. The need of the hour is to check the transport of filter sand,” Harish said.

CS Vishwanath, president of the state government task force for quality assurance in public constructions, said that there is need to impose a ban on the use of filter sand in construction.

“At a recent meeting with engineers involved in construction in the city and also in other parts of the state, the issue of filter sand came up. We maintained then, that there is need to ban the use of this sand in construction, as it could prove dangerous in the long term,” said Vishwanath.

Vishwanath added that monitoring construction undertaken in the private sector was a problem. “In many European countries, civic bodies just won’t issue occupancy certificates without chemical analysis into the structural and material quality; and these tests are undertaken by a third party analyst. It is time that we introduced such a rule in Bangalore too,” he said.

The BBMP’s quality control wing has said that the number of instances where filter sand is used in construction is on the rise.

In 2010, the quality control wing tested 130 samples of government road and the building works. At least 83 samples were found to be of poor quality; nearly in 40% of the cases, filter sand had been used.

BBMP chief engineer Devaraj, who is also in-charge of the quality control wing, said that the highest number of poor quality cases was found in Yelahanka, where several buildings are being constructed.