Is Delhi prepared for a quake?

Haphazardly built illegal colonies which make up 70 per cent of the national capital, narrow lanes with wafer-thin buildings in areas like the Walled City, and a general tendency to ignore building bylaws make a recipe for disaster.

Even the Delhi High Court earlier this week said unauthorised buildings “built on one brick” would be the first ones to go down in case an earthquake hits Delhi. “They are disasters waiting to happen,” it added.
If an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale strikes Delhi, which is in seismic zone IV, the devastation will be much greater than what was seen in Nepal, say experts.
“Ninety per cent of the building designs in the capital are either by the mason or the contractor. Newly constructed houses rarely abide by the meticulous National Building Code-2005, Master Plan of Delhi-2021, Vulnerability Atlas-2006 or the building by-laws. The seasonal wear-and-tear demand is rarely met,” says Avikal Somvanshi, senior research associate at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
Rescue operations will be tough after an earthquake of the magnitude of the one in Nepal, thanks to unplanned growth of much of the capital. Unauthorised colonies, where not even auto-tippers can enter to lift garbage, are likely to be the worst sufferers. 
Municipal corporations in the city echo similar concerns. “Rescue operations in unauthorised colonies will be an Herculean task as the lanes are so narrow that fire fighting vehicles won’t be able to reach the spot. We always face this challenge during any building collapse,” says a senior official with North Corporation.
“Areas in Old Delhi will be the worst hit. There’s no way we can lift rubble and debris from there,” he adds.
Delhi has over 1,600 unauthorised colonies which are home to almost 55 per cent of the city’s total population, say experts. “What makes matters more troublesome is that people are not ready to adhere to the building by-laws, and keep indulging in illegal construction,” says an engineer with North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
“Construction in unauthorised colonies anyway is non-engineered. People build structures in a haphazard manner, leave alone taking safety approval from structural engineers,” he adds.
An architect is responsible for approving building designs, be it a commercial complex or an individual house, while a structural engineers look into the safety aspects.
But there are just 74 structural engineers “empanelled” with the three corporations to ascertain the safety of over 45,000 buildings that come up every year. Altogether there are nearly 30 lakh buildings under the limits of the three municipal corporations.
But even these few engineers are seldom approached with any safety-related queries.
“People do not come to us. In my six years of experience as an empanelled structural engineer with the corporations, only four or five persons have approached me,” says a structural engineer, requesting anonymity. “One of them refused to build a quake-resistant house because it involved more money,” he adds.
Over 10 structural engineers Deccan Herald spoke with pointed out that it requires than 35 to 40 per cent extra steel to build a quake-resistant house, which pushes the costs up.
“It’s one of the main factors why people refuse to build such a house. The other reason is lack of awareness among the masses. After Nepal’s disastrous earthquake, now there is some awareness among them,” says another structural engineer.
Many tenants too prefer cheap accommodation over safety. “We know the building we live in is dangerously built. But the rent is less so we don’t want to move to another place,” says Tarun Shukla, an office help with a bank, who lives in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar.
Even those who have their own houses, don’t bother much with safety measures. “We will think about ensuring the house is earthquake-resistant when we renovate,” says Amit Saxena, who lives in the same locality. 
“People are more worried nowadays about issues like building collapse due to the recent earthquake in Nepal. After a couple of weeks when this thing dies down, so will their worries,” he adds in a lighter vein.
In 2010, 71 people died in a building collapse at Lalita Park in Laxmi Nagar area itself.
Flawed by-lawsThe flaw, however, lies in building by-laws which do not make it mandatory to obtain the approval of a structural engineer while getting a building plan sanctioned. They have been unwittingly bypassed.
So why lay so much stress on structural engineers. “If someone wants to take expert advice on the safety of his building he can consult them,” says a senior official with East Corporation.
Keeping tabs on illegal construction is quite a conundrum for the civic agencies.CSE researchers point out that the Tejendra Khanna Committee, set up in 2006 to look into various aspects of unauthorised construction and misuse of premises in the city, found that 70-80 per cent structures had violated Building and Development Control Regulations.
It stated that the formalities required to obtain a building completion certificate or even a building plan sanctioned are  tedious. So owners seldom procure them.In April 2011, the Delhi government made it mandatory for all builders to submit sanctioned building plans along with structural safety certificates for their new buildings. 
Within days, the number of applicants for property registration saw a drastic fall. Ten days later, the MCD informed the government that it did not have enough engineers to issue the certificates. The order was revoked.
‘We are ready’Despite the lack of preparedness of Delhi in dealing with disasters, as pointed out by experts, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) says the city is “prepared”. 
“We are prepared to deal with emergencies after a disaster has struck. But there is a lot ground to be covered when it comes to pre-disaster activities,” says Ashwani Kumar, Divisional Commissioner, DDMA. The DDMA underscores the importance of major mock exercises meant to be conducted across the city to test disaster preparedness.
“Mega drills should be conducted once a year at least,” Kumar says. The last mega drill took place in 2012 and before that in 2010. “But small scale drills have been conducted regularly,” the official says.
After the Nepal earthquake, the city government sprang into action and took stock of the preparedness in the city. It said 10 well-equipped disaster management centres are functional in the city. It also launched an 24x7 emergency helpline number 1077.
“There are 19,000 Civil Defence volunteers to extend help in the event of any eventuality. About 11 Quick Response Teams (QRTs) are operational in the 11 districts. More QRTs will be created in due course,” it said in a statement.
Last year, the Delhi University's Geology Department prepared a ‘Liquefaction Vulnerability Map of Delhi’, based on the soil structure.  According to the map, Yamuna Bank, Pitampura, Uttam Nagar, Narela and Punjabi Bagh fall are vulnerable to an earthquake of 6.5 magnitude on the Richter scale. Shahdara, New Delhi, Sarojini, Rohini and GTB Nagar are vulnerable even if the earthquake measures 6 on the scale. 
If a big earthquake strikes, people need to help each other – and not rely just on government agencies. Community based disaster management (CBDM) is the key to risk reduction and disaster management. But Delhiites have a poor track record in following the law – whether it is while building houses or taking fire prevention measures.
The District Disaster Management Authorities are in place in the city but the public's involvement in dummy runs and practice alerts is poor, says a DDMA official. “The city lacks the culture of safety,” he says.