The earthquake that hit Pakistan and PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) on October 8, 2005 had a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale and left over 40,000 casualties. Every time an earthquake kills people, it jolts several others, but only for some time, and then, life goes on as always.

The Indian subcontinent has faced four severe earthquakes during the last decade with epicenters at Latur (Maharashtra), Jablapur (Madhya Pradesh), Kutch (Gujarat) and now in PoK, each killing several thousands each time.

If one compares the magnitude of these tragedies with similar or more severe earthquakes in the US or Japan, it leaves only one conclusion: Earthquakes don't kill people; it is poorly designed and built buildings that do!

Had stringent safety norms been implemented the destruction would have been considerably lesser. While nothing much can be done for buildings already constructed, but steps can be taken to ensure safety in buildings to be constructed in future.

First, it is essential for governments to set strict building norms to make structures resilient enough to withstand seismic tremors without any damage. In fact BIS, the Indian agency responsible for setting norms for all products in the country, has released its revised National Building Code 2005 on October 14, 2005, which says that the building should be designed to ensure oscillation and release of energy without causing any undue damage to the structure even in high magnitude earthquakes.

The code takes various factors into account, including the seismic zone in which the area lies.

The BIS recommendations include:

• Lintel band across all the walls, floor band, roof band and vertical bars or still reinforcements at corners for a regular structure. Gable band and eave level band for a structure with a sloping roof.


• Proper detailing and construction of joints to ensure continuity so that the four walls move together to release energy uniformly.


• Strengthening measures around openings (doors and windows), which can be done by RCC reinforcements around the opening with toothed sides.


• Foundation should be adequately designed based on load bearing on the building and the soil type of the area.


• A building with a regular geometry suffers less damage. Cantilevers and projections should be minimum.

However setting up norms is the easy part. The most important issue is considering the norms and implementing a quake-proof design.

As the building materials can't be seen and evaluated by the final user of the constructed property, builders and contractors regularly cut corners in this department.

There are two basic building materials cement and steel, in addition to construction practices and basic design parameters, which decide the strength of the construction. Finding low quality cement is difficult, as most of the mini-cement plants are passe. This leaves us with the quality of steel rods being used in construction.

In a market driven by illegal money and dwindling profitability, builders prefer saving costs as the end user is often ignorant about quality in construction materials.

What matters more is putting up a facade of good exteriors with weak backbone at the least possible cost.

More than 95% of the steel used in urban housing construction is substandard quality rolled by small re-rollers using pencil ingots. And, these ingots themselves are made out of re-melting of available steel scrap in absolutely primitive facilities. They have no control on the chemistry that decide the mechanical properties of reinforcement bars.

Steel is always sold with MTCs (Mill Test Certificates). MTCs report chemistry as well as mechanical properties. But in small construction segment, MTCs are almost unheard off.

The only way to ensure construction of good buildings is lay down strict design parameters and put foolproof systems for ensuring implementation of these designs. The government can make regulations and also create required infrastructure for strict implementation and audits. The final clearance to in habitat the house, should be given only after MTCs for steel used are submitted. This process is not new, it is followed in several developed countries.

Like any other engineering artifact, a building must not only support its own weight, but must also be resilient to external eventualities. In the recent quake, human casualties will always be a tragic loss, but good quality steel could have always been bought.