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In India earthquake building rules weren't followed

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February 3, 2001 

CALCUTTA--(AP) - Experts reviewing the toll of death and destruction wrought by India's latest earthquake say builders weren't following rules meant to ensure homes and offices are quake-proof.

"This is the dream of all concerned with earthquake safety - to see that the buildings are protected as far as possible. But this is not happening," said S.K. Srivastav, president of the Indian Meteorological Society, which tracks quakes and helps set standards for quake-proofing.

A 7.7-magnitude quake on Jan. 26 killed at least 10,593 people and left some 600,000 homeless in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

"Maybe after what happened in Gujarat, people will understand the gravity and take necessary steps," Srivastav told The Associated Press Friday. "But until now they have been taking things very lightly."

At a national construction convention in Calcutta on Thursday, S.A. Vichare, president of the Builders Association of India, said if existing standards had been followed for the structures in western Gujarat "the percentage of damage and loss could have been less."

Vichare said it would take a complete investigation to determine whether violations of the National Building Code violations contributed to the devastation.

Days after the quake, Gujarat state officials seized the building plans of scores of severely damaged buildings. Structural engineers were to compare the buildings with the plans to determine whether codes had been violated.

P.C. Pandey, the police commissioner of the Gujarati commercial center of Ahmedabad said Friday that nine leading construction companies were being investigated for possible violations after complaints were filed by private citizens. He said owners of the companies could be charged with culpable homicide and fraud.

"We have to come to grips with whether the construction material was faulty or the engineers were at fault," Pandey said.

Vichare noted, though, that codes were adopted over the last 20 years, while many of the buildings in the quake region were much older.

Vichare said it was up to local government bodies to enforce the rules, "but small places like Bhuj do not have enough qualified staff to inspect" construction.

At their Calcutta meeting, members of the builders association called on the central government to take over enforcement of the National Building Code.

Arvind Poothia, director of the Calcutta-based Institute of Engineers, said the rules were clear for earthquake-prone regions like the patch of Gujarat where the quake was centered. He said unscrupulous contractors may have cut corners to maximize profits.

Similar complaints were raised after a 1993 quake centered at Latur, in central India, killed as many as 10,000 people. In the wake of the Gujarat quake, Indians were complaining that their government had done little in the years since Latur to tighten enforcement of codes that could save lives.

Surveying the damage in his hometown of Ahmedabad, Dhrumal Vaidya said standards had been ignored.

"So many buildings have come up in recent years which clearly wouldn't meet any of the building standards," quake survivor Vaidya said. "But unscrupulous builders get away with it and it takes a tragedy like this for people to realize they've been cheated."