KOLKATA: At least six engineering firms have applied for enlistment with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) buildings department for correction of tilts in buildings.
The firms made the application after the civic body advertised seeking expression of interest from companies with expertise in such work to seek empanelment. The civic body will scrutinise the applications based on their technical expertise and experience before taking a final decision on which ones to include in the empanelled list. KMC has already constituted a committee of experts that will review the applications and select the competent firms.
“The experts’ committee that will go through the applications has structural engineers who will minutely scrutinising the applications. Names of shortlisted firms will then be published. Private individuals and builders can then engaged these companies in rectifying tilts in buildings in 144 KMC wards,” said a KMC buildings department official.
The move to get firms empanelled was taken after the collapse of a tilted building near Baghajatin while a company was attempting to correct the tilt. Investigation into the incident by the civic body revealed that workers engaged by the company contracted were working unsupervised. Also, the company concerned had not carried out tests to check the inherent strength of the building, nor had it taken measures to secure other buildings next to it.
Following the incident, KMC had also prepared a standard operating procedure (SOP) for owners of such buildings wanting to undertake a similar exercise.
According to a KMC buildings department official, the department will scrutinise several parameters before giving a green signal to the lifting of a building if the structure needs such an operation. “As soon as we receive any application, we will send our engineers who will determine whether the tilt in the building has the potential to damage the structure. If the structural engineer is convinced that the building needs to go through a lifting process, then other steps will be taken,” said a KMC official.
The owner or promoter of such a building will need to conduct a soil test. If the results are conducive for lifting, an empanelled agency with credentials in such precision work will have to be engaged. The entire lifting process has to be done under the supervision of a qualified structural engineer.
“We were shocked to watch that the decision to lift the tilted structure was taken up by the promoter without informing the KMC buildings department. We were kept in the dark about the credentials of the agency that was brought from Haryana and engaged in a place about which the agency workers had no clear idea. The results have been obvious,” said Hakim.
