Urban News

The Hindu 15.07.2009

Dhobi ghats in the city will get a makeover

Chitra V. Ramani

Bangalore: The images of dhobi ghats in the city — of neat rows fluttering clothes, washermen and women standing all day in soapy water near huge concrete tubs, bodies rhythmically moving with the thud, thud of cotton against stone — may soon become just memories.

If the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) plan goes on schedule, the washermen and women will soon be depend on washing machines than muscle power.

Pilot project

According to sources, of the 32 dhobi ghats in the old Bangalore Mahanagara Palike jurisdiction, the one at Vyalikaval will be the first to be modernised and mechanised at a cost of Rs. 60 lakh. “Such a plan has been drawn up for the first time in the country. We hope to create a model which can be extended to other dhobi ghats in the city. All modernisation plans will be carried out in the four acres and 10 gunta area of the dhobi ghat,” the official said.

Of the Rs. 60 lakh allocated for the project, Rs. 32 lakh will go towards construction of the new building, Rs. 16 lakh towards setting up of an effluent treatment plant and remaining for procurement of machinery, including industrial washing machines and boilers.

“Part of the old system will be retained. With mechanisation, the washermen will be able to clean 200 kg of clothes in 30 minutes. This will help the community earn better.”

Checking infections

The official said that one of the major advantages of modernising and mechanising the dhobi ghat was checking the spread of infections. With the effluent treatment plant, water recycling would be made possible, which would reduce water consumption.

“Earlier, the same water was being used over and over again to wash the clothes and the washermen would stand in the water for hours on end. Many washermen, especially those who were diabetic, developed infections on their feet from standing in the dirty water full of soap and chlorine.”

BBMP Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena recently visited the dhobi ghat and inspected the work that has already been taken up. “During his visit, he instructed us to construct first floor also to house the ironing unit. Around 80 per cent of the building construction has been completed. Tenders for the procurement of machinery have been floated. The project will be commissioned by January,” the official said.

The BBMP will maintain the modernised ghat for a year, during which period, members of the Madiwala community would be trained to use the machines themselves.

Along with modernisation, the BBMP will also be taking up a housing project for the 250-odd families belonging to the community at the dhobi ghat. “Around Rs. 3 crore has been earmarked for the housing project that will be taken up under JNNURM.”

The Hindu 15.07.2009

‘Structural stability: onus on local bodies’

Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM: Local bodies should focus on ascertaining structural stability of buildings by appropriate scientific methodology that may involve studying the designs adopted, physically verifying the steel using scanners and verifying the strength of the concrete by non-destructive tests, the Visakhapatnam Centre of the Indian Institute of Architects has said.

Members of the association participated in a meeting organised by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) on the implementation of the Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) last week.

The Visakhapatnam Centre Chairman D.V.K. Sudhakar in a memorandum to Municipal Commissioner B. Sridhar said that members of the centre were at the service of GVMC to lend a hand for any citizen-friendly activities.

The association, however, noted that when it came to safety there could be no middle path. In the light of the High Court’s remarks on ‘BPS Mela’ organised in Hyderabad, the purpose of the meeting organised by GVMC appeared to find a middle path for obtaining the certificate. On the implementation of the BPS, Mr. Sudhakar said violation of building norms led to inadequately ventilated buildings, a cause for poor health. Under BPS, instead of addressing the deficiency, citizens were being penalised, he said. “Levying of penalty is meant to be a deterrent for not repeating violation of regulations but with recurring schemes of penalisation/regularisation wrong signals were being sent that one could violate norms and pay the penalty,” he observed.

Mr. Sudhakar said when the need of the hour was co-operation from people and their participation for cash-strapped civic bodies to do their duties better, citizens were being alienated because of BPS policy and the innumerable sets of regulations heaped on them which were “the real cause for violations.”

Structural aspects

In his opinion accompanying the memorandum, a structural engineer, S.V.N. Suryanarayana Raju, said as far as safety of people living in the buildings was concerned there was only one approach- a comprehensive structural analysis of the building. Any other means of visible inspection should not be deemed as technically qualified assessment, he said. Comprehensive assessment was mandatory for buildings built on encroached areas like ‘geddas’ as there was more possibility of structural failure due to soil settlements and erosion.