High rise in the seismic zone in Shimla
The Municipal Corporation (MC) and the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department are engaged in a serious blame game over the 178 high-rise buildings that have been constructed in the city and its peripheries located in the seismic zone V.
Many of the buildings have hostels in the top floors making it really difficult to evacuate the building in case of fire or tremors. There are other buildings such as 10-storey high court building and hotels and houses, reveal officials.
There are four 10-storey buildings, the high court, Hotel Surya, Vidya Bhavan, Tutu, Santosh Bhawan, Kachighati, two nine-storey buildings Thakur Niwas, Hotel Capital, 12 eight-storey and 144 six-storey buildings in the city as per a survey by by the MC.
Most of the six-storey buildings such as Tutu (38 buildings), Boileauganj (35 buildings, including shopping hub of Lower Bazaar), Chhota Shimla (11) Ruldu Bhatta (10 buildings) have come up on the periphery of the town.
Levelling charges against the TCP, City Mayor, Sanjay Chauhan said “It is a complete failure of the TCP Department which cannot check the growth on the merged areas around the city as the fault lies at the planning level.”
Sudhir Sharma, the Urban Development Minister also revealed the list of some of the high-rise buildings of the area in the House which are having more than five storeys, highlighting the concern over the safety in case of an emergency.
Amarjeet Singh, Municipal Commissioner said that many multi-storey buildings had come up in the merged areas which were earlier with the TCP and later transferred to the MC. He further adds, “We are verifying the status of each six-storey or above building in the municipal area. But final approval rests with the Cabinet.”
Sandeep Kumar, Director of TCP assured that they would consider each case separately once the notification after amending the TCP Act was issued and took action accordingly. He further added that the TCP looked after only the planning area notified by the department and the city area was under the Municipal Corporation.
Source: The Tribune India
Amarjeet Singh, High rise, High rise in the seismic zone, Mayor, MC, Municipal Commissioner, Municipal corporation, Sandeep Kumar, Sanjay Chauhan, Shimla Municipal Corporation, Shimla Town and Country Planning, Sudhir Sharma, TCP, town and country planning, urban development minister
