A preliminary study found the most prominent cause for the wide destruction brought about by Turkey’s earthquake to be a dilution of building-quality codes for relatively new construction. While older buildings must be assessed closely, even newer buildings would require some level of auditing. This would be akin to the National Green Tribunal’s initiative to keep older vehicles off the streets of Delhi so that tighter emission norms can be met. Structures that are scientifically found unsafe would need to be retro-reinforced, or even demolished in a systematic manner in some cases. In such a scenario, audits of building resilience are a must. It should be remembered that Delhi is home to many legacy buildings, some of which date back to more than a century, whose safety under stress is suspect.

The advent of building by-laws is a recent phenomenon in India, and even if one discounts a lack of proper reinforcement of these by-laws by local administrations, the older constructions in themselves pose a significant risk. In this context, Delhi’s ever-increasing population and patchily regulated construction boom-including multi-storeyed apartment blocks, huge factory buildings and gigantic malls-have put the National Capital Region at high risk. “Earthquakes don’t kill people buildings do,' said Cameron Sinclair, the UK-based pioneer of socially responsive architecture.

Quake 3 gold download