After the Wednesday's earthquake, there has been a growing concern among the people about safety of the buildings and high-rises they live in. If an unofficial report is to be believed, there are more than 3,000 multistoried buildings in Bhubaneswar which lack structural safety certificate.
The geoscientists of the State have expressed grave concern over the lack of stress on quake-resistant technology during the construction of high rise buildings. "Since the construction of cost of a building rises by about 25 per cent when safety norms are followed, most builders skip them," alleged an expert.
It may be mentioned that the State Government had assigned a team of geoscientists comprising Prof Kl Pandya, PN Nayak, Dr Rabindra Nath Hota and Dr KC Mohapatra of Utkal University way back in 2000 to study the state of the earth layers in the coastal region. The team, in its report, had stated that since there are some hidden faults in the sub-surface layers at some places including Bhubaneswar, there is every possibility of the movement of the plates under the layers. The team had also observed that the State comes under the fault line that stretches from Kashmir up to the Himalayan foothills.
"Though Odisha comes under zone number-3 or a moderate risk zone, the possibility of earthquakes in the State cannot be ruled out," the report said.
According to Dr Hota, the extent of damage to the buildings depends on the pattern of their construction while taking the intensity and the duration of the earthquake into consideration. "Keeping this in view, the basic structure of the buildings should be in the shape of a cage to sustain the tremor," he observed.
"It is not a fact that there are possibilities of quakes at all the places. However, the devastating quake in latur in Maharashtra on September 30, 1993, forced the geoscientists of the world to come to a conclusion that there should be preventive measures in place in the areas that are least prone to earthquakes.
Talking about the safety measures, well-known geoscientist Amalin Patnaik said, quakes of magnitude 6 in the Richter scale could result in jolts that can lead to cracks in the walls and cause damage to weak structures.
It is the first jolt which is the most powerful and causes damage to the structures, he said, adding, the aftershocks that gain energy from the tremor cause devastation by destabilising the already weakened structures.
Aftershocks are dangerous because they are usually unpredictable. They can be of a large magnitude, and can collapse buildings that are damaged from the main shock. Bigger earthquakes have more and larger aftershocks and the sequences can last for years or even longer especially when a large event occurs in a seismically quiet area, Patnaik pointed out.
Considering the above, emphasis should be given on the designing of the plinth band and lintel band for the high rise buildings to sustain and survive high magnitude tremors.
According to sources in Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) only 1,354 apartments in the city have adhered to the shock-proof guidelines of the building norm. But surprisingly there is no information available about hundreds of high rises providing shelter to thousands of people.
An official said BDA has 72 empanelled engineers who are entitled to approve the building plan and closely observe the construction work from beginning to end. While these engineers guide the construction of building with heights from seven meters to thirty meters, after fully satisfaction they declare the building to be fit to reside in. Meanwhile, there are experts from IIT and NIT who have been entrusted with the job to monitor and issue fitness certificate to high-rises with 10 storied or more. But builders and developers in the city are openly flaunting this mandatory proceeding.
"At the time of occupying a flat if we ask the developer whether they have obtained the building safety certificate from the Government agency then they charge more money. The developers directly charge the buyers for the money they spent to follow the building safety norms. That's why we opt for buildings in lesser costs," said a person here who recently bought a flat in the city.
A BDA planning member said, "If we wish to have earthquake-resistance buildings especially high-rises then buyers and the monitoring agency have to work together. We are going to ask the structural monitors to follow zero tolerance towards the developers. At the same time, the buyers need to verify the credibility of the developers before occupying the apartments."