Earthquake resilience of Pol houses in Ahmedabad
Jain (2005), IIT Gandhinagar, in his article ‘the Indian earthquake problem’ mentions the scenario post- earthquake in India. After the earthquake strikes people feel assured that now the construction will be seismic responsive, and efforts will be taken in this direction. The houses are seismic resistive when people are not killed while living inside. He states that during Bhuj earthquake “Multi-storey buildings fall like a pack of cards and realized that these housing types are similar to the ones in which they are living or have plans to retire into.” “Structural Engineers Forum of India (www.sefindia.org) clearly show that a huge number of unsafe buildings continue to be built every day”. Hence, he emphasises that it is more important to construct building robust rather than finding solutions for public awareness, because if the buildings survive and less casualties occur, it will become an example way forward. Retrofitting for old vernacular structures is a promising solution in terms of seismic resistance, “to develop systems, policies and methodologies for seismic retrofitting of existing structures to prepare for sensible retrofitting programmes.”
3.2.3 Current scenario The current scenario study focuses on the existing condition of pol houses which were studied through recent works. Residents were approached telephonically to gather the information related to 2001 earthquake scenario and current damages and issues which they are facing. Municipal corporation was approached to understand the policies and role of A.M.C. for disaster management and conservation of residences. With the development of heritage cell at the municipality level and the city receiving its title of world heritage city, the awareness within the community towards the heritage structures has increased. (Nayak).The newspaper reports related to the conservation within the historic city were referred. From the workshop proceedings of “disaster risk reduction of historic cities – a framework of building resilience”, organized by NIDM (national institute of disaster management) and A.M.C. in 2018 it is evident that the concern for earthquake resilience has been identified. The report mentions a lack of policy level conservation strategies and guidelines.
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