Engineers build a consensus on collapses

NOVEMBER 19: If a building falls down causing death of the owner or his son, whichever may be the case, the builder or his son shall be p...

NOVEMBER 19: If a building falls down causing death of the owner or his son, whichever may be the case, the builder or his son shall be put to death. If other possessions are destroyed, these shall be restored and the damaged parts of the home shall be reconstructed at the builder8217;s cost. 8212; the Code for Builders drafted about 4,000 years ago by Hammurabi, a king of Babylon.

Buildings in Mumbai are known to collapse like badly balanced toy houses. And recent instances are too many for comfort: Govind Towers in Bandra east, Poonam Chambers at Worli, sinking buildings in Thane or balconey collapses by the dozen. Structural engineers, who certify whether buildings are safe, have finally decided to put their heads and skills together to address the problem.

At a two-day national conference on Corrosion Controlled Structures in the New Millennium8217;, organised by the Indian Society of Structural Engineers ISSE at the Amar Gian Grover auditorium, Haji Ali, experts presented research papers on preventingcorrosion of buildings. All of them appealed to the builder lobby and fellow structural engineers to ensure that all buildings under construction experience minimum corrosion, which is the primary cause of building collapse.

Corrosion is an electrochemical process that severely weakens the strength of concrete as it affects the cement and steel. Corrosion is witnessed to a great extent in Mumbai due to humidity.

The above quote from the Babylonian king8217;s code for builders appeared in a paper presented by J J Shah, who has worked as a United Nations Specialist to the Government of Jamaica in this field. Shah has been working on durability of structures since 1993. Many of the experts focussed on a separate aspect of controlling corrosion and claimed that if all of them put together were to practise, there would be very few building collapses even a hundred years after construction.

The conference was inaugurated by C R Alimchandani, chairperson and managing director of Stups Consultants. And knowing thegravity of the subject, government officials like state Public Works Secretary A B Pawar, Director of Special Engineering BMC, Yogin Vyas, Deputy Chief Engineer of MHADA S Y Joglekar, made it a point to be present.

In his inaugural address, Alimchandani posed basic questions to his colleagues in the construction industry and invited debate. 8220;We must stress on quality, stability and durability of a structure by improving designs, the actual construction process and regular maintainance. Are we going to practise any code in the construction industry or not? We must ensure that the mason, an electrician, the carpenter, everybody who is part of construction of a building, has a certificate of adequate knowledge of his job. If we fail to do this, more buildings will collapse and society will be at a loss,8221; pointed out Alimchandani.

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Jyotsna Digaskar and Sachin Joshi of ISSE have appealed to all structural engineers to participate in the conference. They have also appealed the citizens to check corrosionlevels in their buildings to avoid collapse.

Those interested can call on 4221015/4096, 8732517 or email to issenghotmail.com.