The Hindu 17.03.2011
Questions remain on city’s disaster preparedness
Studies have proved northern parts of the city have lower resilience compared to areas in south and west
Plugging loopholes: Various measures at different levels are imperative
to reduce the damage to structures during natural disasters. An aerial
view of Vadapalani. — Photo: S.S.Kumar
The combination of densely populated areas in the city and the risk of
climate-related hazards make Chennai vulnerable to disaster. A study
brought out by Chennai Corporation, Kyoto University and the University
of Madras only goes to prove this. It shows that northern parts of the
city have lower resilience compared to areas in the south and west.
The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan has awakened
the curiosity of the residents on how prepared the city is in case of a
possible calamity. Unlike the tsunami warning alert, there is no
reliable technology to forewarn earthquakes. Much of the emphasis
therefore is on how stringently buildings have adhered to the norms laid
by the National Building Code.
The Tamil Nadu Common Building Rules for Urban Local
Bodies is under the consideration of the State government. It would
prescribe safety norms as a measure to protect buildings during natural
calamities. If implemented, new constructions would require specific
certification by professionals.
The one question that more people are asking now is: How
capable is the city’s infrastructure and buildings, particularly high
rises, of surviving any natural disaster? Around 25 high rise structures
are permitted in the Chennai Metropolitan Area every year.
The Fire and Rescue Services, one of the agencies that
issue no-objection certificates to building whose height is above 15
metres, has so far given clearance to 964 high rise structures in
Chennai and its suburbs. R. Nataraj, Director, Fire and Rescue Services,
says the issue, however, is with buildings that are less than 15 metres
tall and high rise structures that get the certification and
subsequently violate by adding additional floors.
Vertical growth
Chennai Corporation is carrying out an analysis of
65,000 buildings with more than one storey to see how vulnerable they
are to any calamity. The civic body’s analysis of over 35,000 such
buildings has been completed so far. The retrofitting measures would be
recommended for the surveyed buildings.
With many high rise buildings, quite a few of them with
19 and more floors, getting ready to dot the skyline, experts say wind
and earthquake resistance should be factors the developers should keep
in mind while designing. However, the city does not have any body that
certifies whether a building is earthquake resistant. A structural
engineer can be approached and increasingly it is faculty members from
IIT-Madras and Anna University who are approached.
According to C.V.R. Murty and Meher Prasad A.,
professors, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-Madras, in bigger
cities, including Mumbai, a tall building committee comprises experts
from the field of building design and construction safety. In
international practice, the complete design is over before the
construction starts, whereas this is not the case here.CMDA
vice-chairperson Susan Mathew says that the quality of construction of
new structures in the CMA depend more on the “honesty of purpose of the
structural engineers” who certify the building for earthquake
resistance. She stresses the need for measures towards better monitoring
of the quality of construction by local bodies in the CMA.
Developers agree that taller the building, the more the
challenge as one needs to get more NOCs. “We adhere to the National
Building Code (NBC) norms, but Chennai has a long way to go. We, for
instance, have a material testing lab to test the strength of
materials,” says V.S. Suresh, MD, Real Value Promoters Private Limited.
He suggests that the approving authority should have a team that checks
if the NBC regulation is adhered to and a panel of structural engineers
be formed to certify.
Chennai is on Seismic Zone 3, which means it is on the
moderate damage risk zone. The data about earthquake would be posted on
the IMD website within 20 minutes. It is the Regional Meteorological
Centre that co-ordinates with the State-level Disaster Management Cell
only when there is a catastrophe warning when the magnitude is over 7 on
the Richter scale, the officials said.
Y.E.A. Raj, Deputy Director General of Meteorology, RMC,
says Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) at
Hyderabad is the authorised agency to monitor ocean activity and
tsunami. INCOIS would communicate to Central government and in turn that
would be conveyed to the State government.
The awareness level among residents of several apartment
complexes is equally low. A.V. Surendran, president of Welfare
Association, Rajaji Nagar, Villivakkam, said the residents know only the
fundamentals of things to do during earthquake. “We are planning to
conduct mock drill about fire accidents in future.”
Officials from the Schools Education Department say that
instructions were given to schools to equip students with life skills
after the Kumbakonam fire tragedy but greater emphasis is needed to
impart the skills on continuous basis. Much of such skills lie with
individual schools to teach.
The Chennai Corporation has created a database of teams
of volunteers who would react to any disaster. A total of 155 first aid
teams have been constituted in the city with a total of 465 volunteers.
Other teams that have been constituted by the civic body
include rescue and relief team, communication team, transportation team
and carcass removal team.