Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has constituted an expert committee to examine the entire gambit of construction of buildings in a comprehensive manner and to work out a strategy to prevent incidents of building collapse and suggest suitable measures.
In the recent past, several incidents of collapse of building/arch/canopy have occurred resulting in loss of life and property.
As per the preliminary investigation, the structures are collapsed mainly due to improper scaffolding, lack of supervision of site engineers, poor workmanship and also in few cases faulty design and construction procedures.
The GHMC, while according the building permission, takes certain undertakings from Builders/ Architects/ Engineer/Owner regarding quality of construction and adhering to the sanctioned plan with collective responsibility for the construction of building as per standards.
There is no regulation or practice of inspecting the building from the structural safety or construction quality. Further town planning staff are not qualified enough to check the quality of construction.
Therefore, it has been decided to constitute an expert committee comprising of Chief Engineer, R& B Department; Chief Engineer, GHMC; Director General, NAC; Prof Ramana Rao (JNTU) and Chief City Planner/Director House Numbering as its Convener.
The committee will study the existing practices of regulating the building construction quality in other cities of India; Study the causes of building collapsed during the last two years basing on the earlier enquiry reports and study the existing procedures and methodology in regulating the construction activity including role of architect/engineer/builder/owner
The committee will suggest suitable measures for ensuring the quality of construction and to prevent such incidents of building collapses and also standard operating procedure to be followed during the construction stage
It will discuss with professional bodies such as Institute of Engineers, Institute of Architects, Association of Structural Engineers and co opt any other expert if required.
The committee has been asked to submit the report within four weeks. (INN)