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CITY LIGHTS

TIMES CITY
Hoshi Jal

** THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI MONDAY, MAY 21, 2007

Mumbais Sands And Swamps Make It More Vulnerable

Fully booked
ook launches are not literary events, but are shaped instead by the authors social or business circuit. Thus at Ramachandra Guhas India After Gandhi at the British Council, it was a march of Mumbais post-Gandhians, intellectuals, liberalsfrom Jerry Rao and Satish Sahney to Harsha Bhogle and Daryl DMonte. Before that, when the serene and many-talented Imtiaz Dharker (and daughter Ayesha) read from her Terrorist at My Table, all the usual suspects of Mumbais literate glitterati thronged the Tajs Golden Room. The action moved to the same hotels massive Ballroom last Thursday , when corporate oak R Gopalakrishnan launched his The Case of the Bonsai Manager. The pillared hall was packed to its priceless chandeliers with Tata top brass, and some tacks. Actually there were so many boardroom heavies that you might have mistaken it for the Indian contingent at Davos. Hacks of a certain stripe consider it de rigeur to attend such events, and were seen at all three of these recent launches. The vivacious Gita Gopalakrishnan wore a stole painted with the birds and bees. This was because her husbands book is about Lessons from Nature About Growing. His presentation, however, went beyond Discovery Channel clips of Olive Ridley Turtles to Marquez, Korean proverbs, Walt Whitman, Archimedes, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Leela Chitnis and Sourav Ganguly and Nutan, separately of course. Deepak Parekh, while introducing the book, provided a delightful anecdote on the ethical Manager. When HDFC decided to write an Ethics manual for newcomers, it grew so formidable in size and content that no one would have ventured beyond the second page. So they scrapped it completely, and replaced it with a one-sentence mantra: Dont do anything today that youd be ashamed of if it became public tomorrow.

Reclaimed city needs strong safeguards against quakes

V Subramanyam

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: Highrises sculpt a new horizon in humble central Mumbai

tricians and raddiwallas also occupy prime spots along the road, which is notorious for the illegal stalls on the stretch between the 14th and 15th Roads. The most annoying fallout of the recent demolitions is that after the road-widening, the BMC also built spanking new footpaths on both sides of the road. Where once filthy roadsides or open gutters existed are shiny , maroon-and-yellowtiled walkways. However, more fool you if you think the new sidewalk has benefited pedestrians in any way . The illegal market is back, and the stalls have been built just behind the footpath. So now the vendors have a tiled walkway along which their customers can happily browse and pick and choose their mangoes and pumpkins for the day . Further down, a popular restaurant has even erected a canopy over the footpath, almost as if it were built for the eaterys personal use. Maximum city , minimum civic sense.

Bombay Dreams
The City by the Sea has had many of her poets write her verse. Heres a latest tribute from the pen of Imtiaz Dharker whose collection Terrorist at my Table was recently released: Bombay, Mumbai You wear two names Like scaffolding, your smile held on With bamboo sticks and sellotape And string. Salt swoops in on a sea-wind And eats you bite by bite, Making sounds like seagulls. Paint, plaster, brick, Your lovely polished skin Give in, peels and cracks, But you fight back, I am like that only, You say, and toss your head. White ants turn Your soul to diamond dust, Flood water slaps At your glossy mouth, and you Smile back. You leave Door open. Absolution slides through the walls Of your heart. You fall apart You make yourself again, And shrug, I am like that only. Which other city hands out Two different calling cards

ternet and click on the SATYA form at http://www.karmayog.org (accessible from the home page or directly at http://www.karmayog.org/co mplaints/index.aspx). The civic soldiers at Karmayog will co-ordinate with the Disaster Cell of BMC. Even if you dont care about the city at large, certainly you care about your own backyard? So, whether its uncleared garbage, uncleared debris, choked storm water drains, incomplete or shoddy work, or paver blocks that caved, file your complaint before the clouds show up. Otherwise, hold your peace when your road turns into a river.

he Union Home Ministry recently promulgated an order making it mandatory for all new buildings, especially in cities, to be built on earthquake-resistant designs. Existing buildings will also have to be adequately strengthened (retrofitted) for seismic safety . This is because about 60% of Indias area falls in the seismic zones 3, 4 and 5 where earthquakes of magnitudes from 6.0 to about 8.0 are possible. Mumbai, in zone 3, can see a moderately strong earthquake that can damage buildings, specially the poorly constructed ones, and therefore needs earthquake-resistant construction. The need for such measures cannot be overemphasised because a substantial part of the city is on land reclaimed from the sea. With earthquake-prediction not yet a viable proposition, making our dwellings safe enough offers the only course for survival. People lose their lives in large numbers during earthquakes only due to the collapse of buildings, the falling debris trapping those who flee in panic. Mumbai begs to be given some special considerations for its moist beach sands, swamps, areas reclaimed from

below the sea, and salt-pans which are shown that their seismic safety cannot also proposed to be reclaimed soon. The be guaranteed. Therefore, buildings of wet sands of Mumbai have the ability to reasonable heights, upto 70 metres or transmit earthquake vibrations very so, may have a better chance to survive fast and so are not suitable for earth- in Mumbai. quake-resistant construction. In Apart from these aspects, geological swamps and marshy tracts, the soil is data also needs to be taken into account weakened by constant submergence un- and that includes Mumbais proximity der water and will have to earthquake-generatto be strengthened coning active faults. Even The wet sands of siderably if such spethe best of earthquakecial-types of buildings resistant buildings are Mumbai have the have to be built. liable to fail if conability to transmit In areas like Bandra structed right on such a quake vibrations where several phases fault or close to it. In very fast and so are of reclamation have this context, it may be taken place, it is necesmentioned that a long not entirely suitable sary to allow sufficient fault grazing past the for earthquaketime for the reclaimed eastern slopes of the resistant land to attain requisite Malabar-Cumballa-Worconstruction degree of compaction li Hills was reported by to support any congeologists and engistruction. Here again, the earth used in neers some three decades ago. There reclamation remains wet and will con- are three other faults along the three duct earthquake waves fast. creeks around Mumbai. Incidentally, all In Mumbai, hard rock is available thats been discussed will be valid for only at a considerable depth and so the Navi Mumbai too which happens to be a foundations of a structure will have to lot more active seismically . Four minor be very deep, making construction tremors that have taken place since 1998 more expensive. Earthquake-resistant have occurred near Navi Mumbai. construction of tall highrise buildings going upto 45 floors is admittedly diffi(The writer is former professor of Gecult and recent research in the US has ology, IIT Bombay)
Bhagvan Das

Garden Party
n its drive to become a worldclass museum, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vaastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales museum) is leaving no stone unturned. We want the museum to become an important cultural centre in the city , and we hope to encourage citizens to see it as their own and to help us maintain it, says the museums new director, Sabyasachi Mukherjee. What the museum needs is more interactive sessions with the public and the first event on its calendar is to be a poetryand-visuals event on May 28, when well-known poet Iqbal Patni will read from his poems to a backdrop of projected images from the museums 18th century Ragmala Deccani paintings. The event, titled Tasveer ki awaaz, since the ragmala paintings are inspired by different Ragas or musical modes, is open to the public and will take place in the museum gardens at 7.15 pm. Entry is free. (Contributed by Bachi Karkaria, Noel Figueiredo, Nina Martyris and Anjali Joseph. Compiled by Nina Martyris).

Flood Alert

Towers have quake-resistant tag

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

ON FIRM GROUND

ne often wonders for whose benefit all the massive public works in the city are being executed. Rarely are the facilities put to their intended use. A good example is 33rd Road in Bandra (West), where the BMC recently took up roadwidening. The illegal fruit-andvegetable market operating on the margins of the road has been razed several times in the last few years. But it makes no difference. The vendors rebuild as soon as the BMC workers have departed. Plumbers, elec-

Hafeez Contractor | ARCHITECT

Tuhin

One with the left hand, The other with the right?

ts nothing short of a miracle that a brand old drain has been discovered under the length of Tulsi Pipe Road. But a single drain does not a deluge devour. So be a vigilant citizen and tell the BMC about

chronic flooding spots in the city . And no, you dont have to trek to the local ward office and you dont even have to brave an ALM or AGNI meeting. All you have to do is go to the in-

quake-resistant buildings depending on soil and other conditions. In addition, the BMC has made it mandatory that structural consultants certify that a building is earthquake-proof. In case of tall towers, theres even a special panel to monitor that all standards are met. In fact highrises are more carefully designed to withstand wind loads and earthquakes than four to six storeyed buildings, said Hafeez Contractor.

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2056 2007

Minimum Sense

umbai lies in the seismically prone Zone 3, but most developers and architects vouch for the earthquake-resistance of their structures. Builders do not want to take chances and many of them design buildings keeping an earthquake of higher intensity in mind, said architect Hafeez Contractor. As per the seismic map, Mumbai can be struck by a temblor measuring 6 to 6.5 on the Richter scale; it is also close to Zone 4 which can see higher intensity quakes. Safeguards to protect Mumbai in the event of such disasters are provided by agencies which prescribe norms for quake-resistant designs. The Bureau of Indian Standards, for instance, and the National Building Code have set standards for designing earth-

Highrises are more carefully designed to withstand wind loads and earthquakes than four to six-storeyed buildings

Apart from the design of a building, the detailing and construction play an important role in the structures capacity to withstand earthquakes. Most buildings in the city have this feature, said Satish Dhupelia, a member of the committee which has to scrutinise buildings above 70 metres in height, i.e over 20 storeys. Dhupelia cites the example of the Latur, Koyna and Bhuj earthquakes, during which Mumbai withstood the tremors without any disastrous effect. However, Professor Ravi Sinha from IIT Powais Civil Engineering Department said one cannot be certain about the extent of compliance with earthquake-resistance norms in Mumbai. Cost is not a issue. These measures would merely raise construction cost by a marginal 2% to 5% but sometimes bad engineering is the problem, he said.

TV star alleges foul play in SRA office fire

Mumbai: Television actress and social activist Kunika Lall has filed an intervening application before the Bombay high court (HC) in a PIL filed by activist Shailesh Gandhi regarding corruption in the implementation of varKunika Lall ious slum rehabilitation schemes. Alleging gross illegality and fraud in the destruction of important records in a fire that broke out in the Slum Rehabilitation Au-

SEEKS CENTRAL AGENCY PROBE

thoritys (SRA) office in suburban Bandra early this month, Lall has sought a central agency probe into the incident. She has highlighted certain facts based on media reports claiming that before the fire, some workers were advised by their colleagues not to go to the office on the day of the fire. The actress has also sought an inquiry into the discussions at a closed-door meeting between chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, municipal commissioner and SRAs chief executive officer, regarding the HCs recent orders on corruption in SRA. The matter will come up for hearing before the court after vacation. AGENCIES