1.5 lakh buildings in Delhi highly vulnerable to earthquake

New Delhi, Feb. 1 (PTI): There could be a disaster just waiting to happen in seismically-sensitive Delhi, with the capital's more than 1.5 lakh residential buildings being highly vulnerable to earthquake. "Delhi falls under Seismic Zone IV. It has more than 1.5 lakh residential buildings that are vulnerable to earthquake. Tremors of magnitude six to eight on the Richter scale would leave them in shambles," National Seismic Adviser to Government of India, Prof A S Arya said at a workshop on making buildings quake-resistant here today.

In all, there are 34 lakh residential buildings in the capital, of which 1.23 lakh are `kutccha' or not made of concrete and over 23 thousand are made of stone, both of which are highly vulnerable to earthquake, Arya said. "The important thing is the know-how of earthquake safety measures. People should know how they can check their houses for earthquake safety and how they can get it done very economically," he said.

The figures released by the Central Power Works Department show that retrofitting costs between five to ten per cent of the actual building cost. Arya said retrofitting is the process to upgrade the seismic resistance of an existing building. "The Delhi Government has already taken the earthquake safety initiative for five lifeline buildings with financial support from USAID and technical help from Geohazards International," said Dhar Chakorbarty, Executive Director, National Institute of Disaster Management.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200702011616.htm