E-Paper
Experts to dwell on minimising quake loss
EXPERTS FROM all over the country will congregate in the city to discuss ways and methods to reduce loss of life and property during earthquakes. Alarmed over the devastating earthquakes that rocked Jammu and Kashmir as well as Bhuj recently, Allahabad Chapter of the Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS) has organised a two-day national conference?Earth'06? on 'Earthquake Disaster: Technology and Management' at Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) from Saturday.
EXPERTS FROM all over the country will congregate in the city to discuss ways and methods to reduce loss of life and property during earthquakes.
Alarmed over the devastating earthquakes that rocked Jammu and Kashmir as well as Bhuj recently, Allahabad Chapter of the Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS) has organised a two-day national conference—Earth'06— on 'Earthquake Disaster: Technology and Management' at Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) from Saturday.
Prof KS Rao of IIT-Delhi will deliver a keynote address on 'Seismic Microzonation of Mega Cities' while vice-chancellor of Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, Gwalior and president of India Geotechnical Society, Maj Gen SN Mukherjee, will be the chief guest on the occasion.
Commissioner (Allahabad) Dr Lalit Verma will be the guest of honour while MNNIT Director Prof AB Samaddar will preside over the inaugural function.
Informing about the reason for organising the conference, chairman of the organising committee Prof RK Srivastava said, "India and the neighbouring regions have experienced fair share of seismic disasters over the years.
The recent earthquakes have once again exposed our lack of preparedness in rescue and rehabilitation operations, poor-quality construction methods, lack of stringent administrative and legislative regulations for the earthquake resistant construction."
He said lack of awareness about the kind of soil/rock investigation to be carried out, structural design and construction, the mason driven construction industry, casual approach of civic authorities in implementation of building rules and regulations have all lead to a situation where even with all the available knowledge one is not able to minimise the human misery.
"It seems that a constant reminder of the available and developing technologies and tools of management is essential to all the stake holders and especially those involved in planning, administration policy making and implementation of urban and rural infrastructural development schemes," Prof Srivastava added.
Organising secretary Dr RP Tiwari said that managing earthquake disaster requires a multi-disciplinary approach. "Inputs from geology, seismology, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, risk analysis, environmental and ecological considerations and many more fields are required. Apart from these, consideration of social, economic and political factors are also needed," he said.
Dr Tiwari said that it is in this context that the national conference is being organised.
"The conference aims to act as a reminder of available technology, experience gained, developing technologies and bring about an attitudinal change in professionals and administrators in preparedness and response in the event of an earthquake," he added.
