The Times of India             12.02.2014

Team of civic teachers civilians to assess old civic buildings

VASHI: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has trained a team of 20, including civic teachers, doctors and engineers, to report on condition of the structures of 10 civic schools and two hospitals.

The team is expected to give its preliminary findings by first week of March. It will implement techniques taught during the two-day workshop on Rapid Visual Survey of buildings, conducted by the civic body.

The data will be compiled with the help of a standardized tool kit provided to the disaster management cell as an overview on the structural condition of these buildings. The cell will, then, take a call whether to rope in engineers to conduct structural audit or conduct repair works.

"The idea was to alert the common man about the conditions of their building. They should be capable of ascertaining if repair and maintenance work is needed to avert accidents. Currently, the survey is focusing on the condition of NMMC structures," said a civic official.

The workshop, conducted under the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and a Government of India-funded project on Climate Risk Management (CRM), was held on February 4 and 5.

The toolkit for the assessment is designed in two modules - surveying buildings less than 30 years old and retro maintenance to be undertaken on older constructions. "Simple questionnaire is provided and relevant weightage has also been provided, which eventually provides a detailed graph on the building's condition," the official added.