Govt contemplates retro fittings in existing office buildings to make them earthquake resistant The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has identified Kullu,Kinnaur and Kangra districts and Shimla town as high-risk areas in the state with regard to seismic and hydro-meteorological disasters like landslides triggered by flashfloods. The UNDP has entered into an agreement with the state government to carry out vulnerability assessment surveys of the districts in the coming weeks to put in place a specific risk reduction strategy for these places. To reduce disaster risk in public utility and government office buildings,the state government is contemplating to use retro fittings to make them earthquake resistant and also make provision for adequate emergency exits in case of a disaster like fire,said Principal Secretary,Revenue,P C Kapoor. In a recent meeting,the government discussed the issue and the decision will be implemented soon, said Kapoor. He was speaking at a daylong sensitisation workshop organised by the UNDP for the media in Shimla. J Radhakrishnan,Assistant Country Director,Urban Risk Reduction (URR) Programme of UNDP India,said: These areas have been identified on the basis of the pattern of risks faced in the past and after a pilot study carried out in three villages in each of the districts. In the coming years,with an annual grant of nearly Rs 1 crore from the UNDP,the communities will be informed and prepared for risk reduction. Deputy Secretary,Union Ministry of Home Affairs,and Deputy National Project Director,URR Project,Suchitra Goswami expressed her concern over poor response of the Himachal Pradesh government in implementing the Central guidelines on building bylaws framed after enactment of the Disaster Management Act,2005. We had circulated the new guidelines two years ago,which were mandatory for incorporation in the states building bylaws,but we did not get any response from Himachal and another state. One of the main clauses was to make earthquake resistant features mandatory in fresh constructions and train engineers and masons on this, said Goswami.
