City builders to focus more on safety

The apartment and commercial building construction in the city is entering a new era, where high-rise buildings will be the in-thing. Keeping it in mind, the builders in the city need to be educated about the safety and quality norms, said P. Anand Kumar, Chairman of Visakha Apartment Builders Association (VABA). He was addressing the media before the start of the one-day seminar on Structural reinforcement detailing and construction material here on Sunday.

He pointed out that VABA was formed a year ago with the intention of creating awareness on various aspects among the builders and taking up issues with the authorities concerned. This seminar attempts not only to educate the builders but also the ground staff such as masons, supervisors and rod-benders on safety and quality aspects, he said.

Referring to a question on the recent accident where four workers were buried alive after earth caved in at a construction site, VABA president P. Bhogeswara Rao said, That is what we intend to point out and educate people. It was clear that certain safety norms were not followed and since we are entering a new phase, we need to give close attention to such aspects. We are all new to high-rise construction, and there is a lot to learn. We intend to educate our fraternity, including the support staff by hosting such seminars and training programmes on a regular basis, he said.

Referring to the accident, association secretary P.V.L. Narasimha Raju said that testing of soil plays a vital role in high-rise construction, especially when one intends to go for sub-soil construction. There is a scientific approach, and many are not aware of them. And that is why we have invited experts from IIT-Madras to visit us on a regular basis and educate us on such aspects, said Mr. Raju.

On whether errant builders will be blacklisted, Mr. Raju said that the association was not a statutory body to do so, but would definitely cancel such builders membership and withdraw all support.

Two senior professors from the Department of Civil Engineering, Andhra University -- K. Rambabu and K. Srinivasa -- addressed the participants.

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City builders to focus more on safety