Sunday’s incident of wall collapse at a function hall in Amberpet in which four persons were killed, shares eerie similarities with another instance a year and three months ago in Kukatpally.
In August 2018, two schoolchildren died when a temporary dais erected in the school collapsed, unable to bear the weight of the beam. The beam was simply laid on the columns without any support.
In Amberpet too, in an attempt to improve the function hall’s façade, a wall was constructed joining the middle two columns among the four that supported the front portion. Over the wall, a beam was laid over which came a glass façade.
The GHMC officials said no structural engineer was engaged to assess the strength of the wall or pillars to support the beam. The columns were not prepared beforehand for adhering well to the concrete wall or the beam, which led to the collapse. It may be noticed that all the columns, though old, were intact, while the newly elevated structures collapsed.
The accident has once again brought to focus, the structural stability or its lack in the buildings, for which no one is held accountable till a mishap occurs.
Though the GHMC has stipulated third-party verification by an empannelled structural engineer as mandatory requirement for issue of occupancy certificate, it has neither control nor check over renovations and changes within the structures.
“GHMC’s responsibility is limited to ensuring the set back spaces and legality of the construction as required. We have no control over the structural engineering part. It is not possible for our town planners to check what goes inside the premises as long as it happens within the set back spaces. Our Town Planning wing doesn’t even have structural engineers in its team,” said GHMC Commissioner D.S. Lokesh Kumar.
However, Town Planning officials do check for the structural stability of old buildings once they cross certain age, and issue advisories to the occupants to either vacate the premises or strengthen them. In such cases, the structural strength is assessed by independent engineers or by experts from the JNTU.
After last year’s mishap, a team from JNTU studied the structural stability of the school building, and submitted a report to the GHMC. As per the report, the structure was old with only superficial improvements carried out with an aim to enhance the visual appeal. The building has since been denied permission to run a school, officials shared.
“But remember that the mishap was not due to school building collapse. It was a temporary structure which came crashing on the children. In such cases, it is wholly the responsibility of the owner of the premises to ensure safety of its occupants and there is little GHMC can do about it,” says an official under the condition of anonymity.
