GUWAHATI: Are building constructions safe on the hills of Guwahati? Well, experts are not quite in favour of high rise constructions on the city’s hills.
However, Guwahatians are tending to build high rise buildings on the hills. Also, a greater number of educational institutions have been set up negating the ecological balance; how much of risk this poses to people’s lives is a vital question.
Speaking to G Plus, the head of department of earthquake hazard and risk of Norwegian Seismic Array (NORSAR), Dominik H Lang, said that the haphazard fashion of building construction on the hills of Guwahati was a matter of “serious concern.”
NORSAR was established in 1968 as part of the Norwegian-US agreement for the detection of earthquakes. Based in Oslo, a team of NORSAR headed by Lang is currently working on an earthquake damage estimation project for Guwahati city in tandem with Assam Engineering College.
“Buildings are being constructed on the slopes, which is a huge threat to life. The uneven foundation of such buildings on the slopes is definitely not strong. An earthquake of big magnitude can turn those buildings into rubble within seconds,” said Lang, while giving an overview of the project, adding that Guwahati is geologically and topographically different from the other cities in the country as it is based on soft soil. Soft soil bases in seismic zones are more vulnerable to earthquakes compared to hard soil.
“The growth of Guwahati is directed along the major roads, while it is restricted because of physical constraints like hills and water bodies. It is affecting the size of the city. Distance between the buildings is shrinking and the city has a dearth of open space,” he said.
When contacted, the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) officials refused to talk about the building permissions given on the hillocks of Guwahati.
Sources in the GMDA have said however that building permission of ground plus one (two storey) is the norm that has been allocated on the hills. The source also said that the Authority can act against illegal constructions only when complaints against such illegal constructions are filed.
What if a disaster strikes?
Experts opined that technology would play a big role in mitigating problems after a disaster. They held an idea that immediately after an earthquake the local authority should know about the accessibility of the rescue teams and have overview maps that help the rescuers.
“They should know where to send the rescue teams and how to launch rescue operations. Technology should come up in such a way that overview maps showing disasters are made available to every stakeholder. Overview maps indicating relative and absolute damage distribution would be of great help. Instead of having a single map of the city which creates confusion, smaller maps demarcating the city in smaller units are much better. The smaller maps will show damage and loss distribution of each unit,” the experts from NORSAR including Lang believe.
Green Belt norms continue to be flouted
Construction of buildings in green belt areas have been flouting norms since time immemorial. Adjacent areas of the beels in the city- Borsola, Xorusola, Deeporbeel and Silsakobeel, areas near river side, Jyotikuchi, Saokuchi etc are regarded as green belt areas. Apartments as high as 14 storey to 18 storey are being constructed in these areas. GMDA officials are of the opinion that not more than one storey can be built in these areas. Residents of Saokuchi green belt areas are a confused lot. While they don’t know whether their area was newly designated as green belt they continue to make RCC buildings that are more than one storey.
“We had acquired building permission from GMDA to build two storey. Later we got to know that this area has been newly designated as a green belt. We don’t know what to do now,” a resident of Saokuchi said on condition of anonymity.
