Rawalpindi: 200 dangerous buildings: RTMA neglect puts hundreds of lives at risk

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Aamir Yasin
RAWALPINDI: The fear of death and destruction hangs over the families living in the city’s over 200 buildings declared unsafe by Rawal Town Municipal Administration (RTMA) long ago.

Officials of the RTMA’s building department say these structures are too old to be used any more and could collapse in case of a tremor of moderate intensity.

A strong initiative is however missing on their part to either pull down these dangerous structures or get them repaired. Things get more alarming seeing that the populous town is located on a seismically active fault line.

The RTMA is in the habit of serving vacation notices on families inhabiting these death traps just before the start of every monsoon. Most of such notices go unnoticed due to the RTMA’s inefficiency.

Among these dangerous buildings are Government High School Ziaul Uloom of Raja Bazaar and Haveli Sujhan Singh of Bhabara Bazaar, while others are mostly houses.

The statistics say 39 dangerous buildings are located in Bhabra Bazaar, 27 in Shah Chan Chiragh Mohallah, 15 each in Saidpuri Gate and Lunda Bazaar, 13 in Nishtarabad, 12 in Chittian Hattian, 11 in Peshawari Gali, seven in Mohallah Waris Khan, five each in Bohar Bazaar, New Sarafa Bazaar and Dhakki Mohallah, four in Nayya Mohallah, three each in Mohallah Niarian, Bazaar Talwaran, Purana Qila and College Road area, two each in Shah Chan Bazaar, Mochi Bazaar and Raja Bazaar, and one each in Chhachhi Mohallah, Alam Khan Road, Jhangi Mohallah, Rani Bazaar and Chowk Bansanwala.

Rawal Town Nazim Sheikh Rashid Shafiq told Daily Times that before the advent of monsoon, the RTMA had directed respective families to vacate unsafe buildings or get them properly repaired through notices.

He said it’s unsafe to continue occupying dangerous buildings as they along with adjacent structures could collapse in case of a moderate intensity earthquake.

The nazim said he was unable to provide alterative accommodation to the occupants of dangerous buildings.

He said either government departments like Evacuee Trust or common men owned such buildings and it’s their responsibility to keep them in prefect order.

When asked about old listing of dangerous buildings, the nazim said the lists should be updated every year. He, however, failed to provide reasons for the RTMA’s failure to do so on an annual basis.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg11_6