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2.4.2. Earthquake effects on Ahmedabad old city
2.4.2 Earthquake effects on Ahmedabad old city
The walled city of Ahmedabad is situated on the banks of river Sabarmati. The landform of the old city is almost uniformly flat, unlike the newer city which has small hillocks, known as tekaras in Gujarati. It was observed that the walled city showed extremely low damage and no complete collapse when compared to the newer R.C. structures. According to the survey conducted by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in 2001 roughly, only 10% of the structures in the old city showed major cracks and signs of damage post-earthquake. (Modan, 2006) .Randolph Langenbach also mentions in his report that only one traditional structure was completely collapsed in the old city. The analysis was also pointed out that as the city is located 400kms away from the epicenter the seismic waves were longer, hence the possibility of complete collapse of taller structures was larger. Still, comparatively the old city with traditional houses suffered little damage and no casualties were reported due to falling of structures. It was also observed that one of the traditional pol houses which suffered the collapse due to the falling of the newer R.C. structure adjacent to it. (Shah K. , 2020)
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Figure 11 Damage report of old city by A.M.C. Source- (Shah, Modan, & Chayya, 2006)
A contrast in the usage of materials is observed in Bhuj's old city, which was ruled by Hindu rulers and Ahmedabad's old city, which predominantly had Sultanate and Mughal
rulers, the latter has traditional pol houses with timber lacing and masonry construction, while in Bhuj stone was majorly used. A hypothesis can be developed here that the technique of pol house construction is similar to the houses in Turkey and other regions with Ottoman empire rule which is discussed in the coming chapter of the literature review.
Figure 13 Partial collapse of a Pol house 2001, Source - (Langenbach R. , conservationtech.com, 2001) Figure 12 Pol house post earthquake, Source (Langenbach R. , conservationtech.com, 2001)
