Disaster-resistant buildings for educational intuitions in offing

Srinagar, Dec 31: The government is mulling to construct disaster-resistant buildings for educational institutions in the state.
School, college, and university buildings will be constructed as per the guidelines given by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
“All buildings like school, colleges, universities or other buildings will now be made disaster resistant. The buildings will be built as per National Building Code (NBC),” said Director Disaster Management, Amir Ali.
The NBC is a comprehensive building Code, providing guidelines for regulating the building construction activities across the country.
It serves as a Model Code for adoption by all agencies involved in building construction, be they Public Works Departments, government construction departments, local bodies, or private construction agencies.
The main aim to build these structures is to minimise collapses and save lives.
“Building will be constructed in such a way that if any disaster happens, the building should not collapse which in turn will save lives especially of school kids besides others,” he said.
Chief Secretary B B Vyas on Wednesday chaired a meeting to review the implementation of the guidelines on School Safety Policy, 2016, prepared by the NDMA.
He also emphasised on ensuring that upcoming new school buildings are constructed as per the earthquake-resistant guidelines from NDMA, besides retrofitting the old ones, wherever needed.
Ali said that directions have been given to education department to identify the schools to be constructed on disaster-restraint pattern.
“Besides building new educational institutions as disaster restraints, the education department has been asked to identify previous buildings that are to be retrofitted,” Ali said.
Disaster Management Department will also organise a programme to train the engineers about the process of making earthquake-resistant factors and retrofitting.
Ali said the department has notified the medical officers and nodal officers for each district to implement the School Safety Policy.
Chief Education Officers of each district have been declared as nodal officers, while steps have been initiated to build the overall capacity of the stakeholders.