The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Vijayawada News : Task forces to quell quake fears

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 16, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada

Task forces to quell quake fears

By Our Staff Reporter

Municipal Commissioner, V. Usha Rani, speaking at a workshop on earthquake awareness, in Vijayawada on Friday. Senior scientist of NGRI, R.K. Chadha, UEVRP, UNDP India project coordinator, Anup Karanth, are also seen.

VIJAYAWADA, OCT.15. Four special task forces comprising experts and officials of Government departments and NGOs have been formed in the city as part of the earthquake preparedness measures.

The task forces will deal with issues pertaining to awareness, technological reforms, capacity building and prompt response to meet the situation in the event of an earthquake.

The decision to constitute the task forces was taken after a day-long workshop on "Urban earthquake awareness, mitigation & preparedness in Vijayawada city" organised by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) with the United Nations Development Programme, India, the district administration and the Ministry of Home Affairs here on Friday.

Besides Government officials, representatives of several NGOs participated in the workshop organised in the wake of the recent "tremors" experienced at Krishna Lanka area in the city.

Expert presence

Each task force, which will be under the control of the district Collector, will be headed by an expert and will deal with a issues like creating awareness among public on earthquakes, preparing people to meet the situation, preventive steps to avoid casualties and evolving rules for construction of quake-resistant houses.

Briefing reporters on the measures, the Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri-Urban Development Authority (VGMT-UDA), vice-chairman, V.N. Vishnu and the Municipal Commissioner, V. Usha Rani, said the Government would consider the proposal making it mandatory for all future constructions to comply with the Bureau of Indian Standards norms to ensure that the buildings were quake resistant.

Control room

Usha Rani said a special control room was also being set up in the Corporation to provide the information and assistance to builders and public for construction of such quake-resistant buildings. However, it was clarified that there would be no immediate insistence on complying with reforms as the necessary legislation needed to be formulated.

Digital mapping

Mr. Vishnu said that the digital mapping being presently undertaken by the VGMTUDA in the four towns would be used to improve the future building plans. He said it was more than three decades since master plans had been prepared for Vijayawada, Guntur, Tenali and Mangalgiri. Once the imaging process was completed by March 2005, the new master plans would be formulated taking into consideration the guidelines evolved for earthquake resistant buildings, he said.

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