Quake-prone States yet to get their act together: expert

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, APRIL 18. Prof. A. S. Arya, professor emeritus of the Earthquake Engineering department of Rourkee University, the much sought after expert in the post-Gujarat earthquake scenario, has debunked the argument that India has no technology for designing quake-resistant buildings necessitating the import of Japanese know-how.

He told The Hindu that India has one of the best disaster prevention management plans incorporating techno-legal regime, standards and guidelines covering both earthquakes and floods. It was in appreciation of this plan in the formulation of which he was actively involved that he had received the highest UN award for disaster prevention management. ``The problem if any is poor implementation and not lack of technology.'' He is in Hyderabad to conduct a training programme on ``Earthquake resistant design of buildings,''organised by the Engineering Staff College of India.

Prof. Arya, who is on several committees including the one that has gone into collapse of buildings in the Gujarat earthquake, said while the Centre followed it vigorously, no State Government, under whose purview disaster management comes, took it seriously. There could not be two views on the importance of modifying development control and building bylaws in tune with this techno-legal regime. It was proved in the Gujarat earthquake. All Central Public Works Department buildings which adhered to the regime and the National Building Code, remained intact while others collapsed.

Apart from emphasising on establishing the techno-legal regime, two other documents prepared were vulnerability atlas of India and listing of four technical guidelines in a easy-to-understand format. These were circulated at the all-India State Housing Ministers conference and the annual meetings of the Relief Commissioners. But nothing happened after that, barring Maharashtra that too some steps after the Latur earthquake.

He said the latest earthquake in Gujarat shook the State Governments and they had woken up. Starting with Gujarat, some States like Delhi and Rajasthan had taken the initiative to incorporate these guidelines into their own State and corporation laws. Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had done it but these were not up to the mark. Several other States had not done anything though the latest seismic zoning lists them as high earthquake risk areas.

Replying to a question on feasibility of retrofitting of partially damaged buildings, he said it was possible in several of the cases. In 1997, retrofitting and repairs were carried out on 500 buildings of the housing board in Jabalpur. Cost-wise it worked out to 8 per cent of the original total cost.

Prof. Arya also suggested trying out construction of buildings on ``earthquake resistant isolators'' like it was done in Japan.

He dismissed as a ``myth and a misconception,'' the oft-repeated argument by builders that if they stick to the building standards of the Bureau of Indian Standards and the National Building Code, the project cost would be high and there would be no buyers. ``It is minimal,'' he added and also derided the tendency of the builders to give importance to architects only and make structural engineers ``subservient'' to them.

He was hopeful that the Union Urban Development Minister, Mr. Jagmohan's efforts to make changes in building bylaws making the owner of land, builder, architect and structural engineer equally responsible in the event of a building collapse, would be successful.

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Section  : Southern States
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