Poor building audits ‘recipe for disaster’

Poor audit of buildings, informal construction and a callous attitude towards investing in safety in India paints a picture of a disaster waiting to happen.

The frequency of earthquakes, especially in north India, is a reminder for authorities to focus on public safety in a country that dreams of building smart cities.

As far as disasters are concerned, regulations are clearly laid out, but the problem is that majority of the construction business isn’t formalised, said Rajiv Bhakat, Partner at Studio Code, a Delhi-based architecture firm.

Moreover, there is lack of a periodic review of buildings, especially as regulations get updated.

Pratap Padode, founder and Director, Smart Cities Council India, said, “The audit component is missing. For example, a building gets a green rating at the time of construction. But there needs to be a yearly audit of whether the owners/users of the building are complying with the regulations.”

According to an Assocham report on earthquake safety in India, the Supreme Court vide its judgement dated December 5, 2014 on a Public Interest Litigation, had asked the Centre to ensure the National Disaster Management Authority undertakes a public awareness campaign through print and electronic media to educate the public about the four categories of earthquake-resistant buildings with detailed definition.

“The order stated all buildings housing more than 100 people and all multi-storey buildings, more than five storeys, both new and old, should have an engraved metal plate, mentioning that the earthquake-resistant category of the building,” Sandeep Shah, Country Head and MD (India), Miyamoto International, a global structural and earthquake engineering firm, said.

Shah, who filed the PIL, added, “There are two main Indian building codes used to design earthquake-proof buildings — IS-1893, which has not been updated for 13 years and IS-13920, which has not been updated for 22 years.

World over, most countries update their codes every 4-5 years. In India, there is laxity on the part of government authorities towards public safety.” Moreover, the advertisements of all realty projects should include the earthquake resistant category as defined in the NDMA document, the order had stated.

Santosh Kumar, Director, National Institute of Disaster Management, says, “It is actually a matter of perception and attitude. We invest very little towards safety. Despite so many fire related tragedies in our country, the attitude towards safety hasn’t changed.”

Fire safety guidelines are non-negotiable and it is mandatory for buildings to put in place exit routes, extinguishers, sprinklers, etc. In order to commence construction, these licenses have to be obtained. As many as 28 procedures are required for construction approvals in Delhi.

“However, after construction is over, during operations, flouting of these standards is pretty rampant. Sometimes fire exit doors are locked, the space is used for storage, exits are not marked, or other such things.

“I am not sure if we have any policy or guidelines on periodic fire audits. Building operators are required to do them on their own. After Uphaar (fire tragedy) all cinema theatres are very diligent on this. But apart from that most commercial establishments are quite lazy about it,” said Avikal Somvanshi, Programme Officer with the Sustainable Buildings and Habitat Programme, Centre for Science and Environment.

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