The tragedy at Lakshmipuram has exposed how ill-equipped the Town Planning Department of the Guntur Municipal Corporation is when it comes to dealing with structural designs of multi floored buildings.
With a slew of multi floored and double cellar constructions coming up on the Lakshmipuram Road, Ring Road, and GT Road, the Town Planning wing faces an uphill task.
Guntur and its surroundings being in Zone III seismic activity, extra precaution has to be taken while dealing with multi floored structures, experts say.
The Town Planning Department, which is bogged down by lack of technical staff, has no structural design wing and is forced to process the plan prepared by private structural designers.
Even in the case of the under construction shopping complex where five men were killed, the department simply processed the structural design proposed by a private firm as it has no wherewithal to make an independent assessment.
“In our country, structural design and soil strength is not given much importance. In developed countries, these things matter a lot before the approval of plan itself,” said senior structural engineer Anjaneya Prasad.
The building plan by Phoenix Realtors for the shopping complex, which is now under the scanner, was approved on October 28, 2015, and soil testing was done by an engineering college.
The plan has a cellar, a semi basement, and a G+4 structure.
Preliminary investigation has now revealed that the soil strength at the site varies from place to place.
Work began a few months after the plan was approved as per G.O. Ms No. 168.
But as the GMC does not have a geo technical wing, the construction was allowed to begin even before an independent assessment of structure, its design, and soil strength is made.
It does not have structural design assessment mechanism
