New Delhi: Around 300 engineers from MCD and
DDA will fan out across the capital from June to assess if the
city buildings can withstand earthquakes, and will submit
their reports recommending necessary action.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has
finalised a 10-day crash course on Rapid Visual Screening
(RVS), with the help of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and
the Delhi Development Authority, to train these engineers.
The RVS method is designed to evaluate risks to buildings
without performing any structural calculations. A scoring
system requires the evaluator to identify primary structural
lateral faults and identify building attributes which can
modify the seismic performance.
Officials of NDMA, DDA and MCD met on Monday to chalk out
the training schedule and have decided to start the training
programme from June. Earlier, it was scheduled to begin this
month.
"School buildings, government offices, police stations
and other important buildings should be analysed and evaluated
first. Proper evacuation plans for these buildings have to be
laid out and engineers should be trained accordingly," Prof
Harsh K Gupta, a Member of NDMA, said.
The course will be conducted by Dr Chandan Ghosh, who is
a specialised earthquake engineer.
After completion of training, engineers would reassess
buildings in their locality and submit a report to their
respective organisations.
Thereon necessary actions like either demolishing unsafe
buildings, or asking building owners to re-submit their
building sanction plan in compliance to NDMA`s earthquake
safety rules, would be taken up by the civic bodies, Gupta
said.
PTI
