Two high-rise apartments, 14 govt offices marked unsafe
An assessment of the government team has marked two high-rise apartments, 14 government offices outside and five inside Singha Durbar, and five hospitals in the Kathmandu valley unsafe
An assessment of the government team has marked two high-rise apartments, 14 government offices outside and five inside Singha Durbar, and five hospitals in the Kathmandu valley unsafe for immediate use.
After completing the assessment of 26 high-rise buildings, 134 buildings of 78 government offices and 96 buildings of 20 hospitals in the Kathmandu valley, the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) categorised the buildings under three categories—marking them red, yellow and green.
Red refers to unsafe for immediate use, those marked yellow require repair before use, and green are buildings which are safe for use.
However, the government is yet to complete assessment of all the buildings. “We have expedited the process of assessing the buildings in Kathmandu,” said Ganesh Karmacharya, engineer at DUDBC.
According to Sagar Krishna Joshi, divisional engineer at DUDBC, the government authority has given permission for the construction of 70 high-rise buildings in Kathmandu.
Of the total, construction of 56 has been completed, 31 apartments have settlements, 14 are being used for different purposes and 11 are under construction.
“The current assessment has only told whether the high risers are safe or unsafe for immediate use. A detailed study should be done to find out the actual condition of the buildings that have been marked with red stickers,” Joshi said.
DUDBC has said it will complete the assessment of the high-rise apartments within coming three-four days.
Nepal Land and Housing Developers’ Association has said 31 apartments in the Kathmandu valley accommodates more than 4,000 families.
Real-estate property developers have been saying most of the buildings have sustained “cosmetic cracks” mostly only on walls, but engineer seismologists say the buildings have sustained serious cracks due to the lack of farsightedness of the developers and proper tests before construction.
The actual status of the apartments will be known only after these buildings are assessed by third-party experts. The DUDBC, which is currently studying the situation of high-rise apartments, is the same institution that had given permission to the developers to construct the buildings by “checking whether the builders have complied with the government standards”.
As for government buildings and hospitals in the valley, relatively older ones have received red stickers. “Relatively older infrastructures have sustained severe damages,” Karmacharya said.
He added certain portions and blocks at institutions like Nepal Rastra Bank at Thapathali, Inland Revenue Office at Babar Mahal, Agriculture Department at Harihar Bhawan, Department of Civil Personnel Records at Harihar Bhawan, National Judicial Academy and Department of Customs at Tripuershwor, DRC block and Office Block of Nakkhu Jail and Security Block of National Art Museum Chauni have received red stickers.
According to Karmacharya, of the 134 buildings of 78 government offices, 79 buildings have received green stickers and 40 have received yellow. Out of 96 buildings of 20 hospitals, 76 have received green stickers, 15 yellow and five red.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, a total of 10,790 government houses have been destroyed fully as of Sunday. The number of government houses that were partially destroyed stands at 14,997, the number of public houses fully destroyed stands at 288,798 and the number public property partially destroyed stands at 254,112.
7.12°C Kathmandu
