SIKKIM:Precarious Gangtok to collapse if major quake hits, warns NMID

SIKKIM:Precarious Gangtok to collapse if major quake hits, warns NMID

GANGTOK

A senior official from the National Institute of Disaster Management (NMID) under Ministry of Home Affairs today warned the precarious high rise constructions in a ‘cheek by jowl’ Gangtok is waiting to collapse if an earthquake above 6 on Richter Scale strikes Sikkim, a State lying in seismic zone IV along the vulnerable Himalayan belt.

“They (buildings) are not at all safe and are waiting to collapse if an event of an earthquake above 5-6 on Richter Scale,” said Dr Chandan Ghosh, head of Geohazards Division, National Institute of Disaster Management to media here on sidelines of a training programme

The two day training programme for engineers and architects on ‘earthquake resistant building and retrofitting’ is organized by State land revenue and disaster management department and GB Pant Institute. According to Dr Ghosh, the buildings in Gangtok or in any other hill stations like Darjeeling and Shimla do not follow the construction guidelines of the NMID or proper designs. Guidelines are there to prevent great damage but not many in the hills have proper details and do not focus on quality design and material which the government must address, he said. Dr Ghosh also said that owners, contractors and masons have to certify that the quality work has been done while constructing the building. The cracks on the buildings in Gangtok during the 2006 earthquake was a warning to all as there is much tension in the Himalayan belt and a proper disaster management strategy must be prepared, said

Dr. Ghosh while congratulating Sikkim government for setting up a separate department for disaster management. The purpose of disaster management agency is as simple as it gets. “Sikkim is in seismic zone IV. There will be less damage if there is good disaster management plan an earthquake above 5 or 6 on Richter Scale occurs here. If the disaster management plan fails, then there will greater damage”, said Dr. Ghosh.

The NMID official underlined the need to sensitize people towards proper design of buildings and have better roads and drainage systems. Attention should be given on how the high rise buildings are being erected, he said. Engineers and town planners have to prepare a road map, he said. Earlier in his address, Dr Ghosh said that it hardly matters what of materials is used for construction. What matters most is how we use them, he said. He invited suggestions and deliberations to prepare a roadmap for Sikkim. Chief guest on the occasion, land revenue & disaster management secretary KT Chankapa highlighted the entire Himalayan belt is one of the most seismically active region in the world with reports of large scale damages in Sikkim after 1897 and 1934 events and smaller earthquakes of 1980 and 1988. Therefore, there is possibility of widespread damages in the State during other major event in the seismic gap regions near Sikkim, said Chankapa. He said that the past earthquakes have clearly brought out that we need to have a comprehensive strategy for disaster mitigation which should include planning, design and construction of earthquake resistant buildings through strict compliance of coded provisions for earthquake counter measures, he said. Sikkim has been fortunate till date as we have not faced any major earthquake disasters but we cannot rule out the fact the threat remains and we need to be well equipped for the unforeseen future, said the secretary pointing towards the aim of conducting the training programme for engineers and architects of Sikkim.