Shimla building collapse
The collapse of a seven-storey building in a Shimla suburb must serve as an urgent warning for a city that is congested, overpopulated and groaning under ever-increasing piles of concrete and steel. It also must awaken the local government and municipal authorities to the dangers of haphazard, relentless construction in a city that falls in Zone 4 of the seismic mapping of India, just on the edge of the most seismically active Zone 5 in Himachal Pradesh. Ten years ago, a survey conducted by the UN Development Programme showed that most buildings constructed in Shimla in the preceding years were structurally unsafe.
With migration from rural regions due to job opportunities, the population of Shimla Urban has grown from 80,177 in 1981 to 169,578 in 2011. Due to scarcity of housing plots, and the National Green Tribunal’s ban on construction in Shimla’s core, green and forest areas, the city has expanded in all directions. Several major localities — with buildings going up to eight storeys, against the city limits of four — are situated on slopes, with inadequate sewerage and water disposal infrastructure. This leads to water seeping to the foundations of buildings, making them structurally unstable — as reportedly happened in the case of the building that collapsed last week.
The state government has announced an inquiry into the incident. If a probe is conducted regarding the city’s most hazardous constructions, its report would only reflect the warnings issued by experts over the decades: Deviation from approved plans of buildings in and outside the municipal limits; almost guaranteed regularisation after paying a fine because mass demolition of buildings is not ‘practical’. An inquiry may also uncover the complicity of government officials and politicians in clearing dubious structures, such as a seven-storey building approved for a proposed petrol station in the Chhota Shimla locality. An urgent look into construction activities in Shimla and its suburbs is the need of the hour, and more stringent rules should be framed before approval is given for construction.
