Residential masonty constructions and their earthquake safety in the rural area of Mandi district

摘要

This has reference to the paper titled 'Residential masonry constructions and their earthquake safety in the rural area of Mandi district', authored by Ramona Sygula, Kaustav Sarkar and Balthasar Novak and Matthias Bunz published in The Indian Concrete Journal (December 2017, Vol. 91, No. 12, pp. 09-18).The authors have to be appreciated for carrying out a field survey that exposed several codal violations with respect to seismic safety of masonry structures constructed in Mandi. Such an initiative is important for a noble cause, as there is no dearth of earthquake resistant guidelines for masonry structures in the Indian Standards as well as books on the same. Past failures have time and again indicated that lack of the implementation of these guidelines is the primary cause for the past devastations. Since India is a developing nation, the major chunk of its buildings still continues to be masonry structures. Thus the safety of such non-engineered masonry buildings poses a serious threat to the society at large. Complete safety can be assured only when all the seismic resistant guidelines pertaining to masonry buildings are properly implemented. The authors have shown that nearly 97% of Mandi district falls under zone V, thus indicating its seismic vulnerability. The authors have reported major violations in terms of plan and elevation asymmetry, masonry workmanship in terms of tooth joints for perpendicular walls, poor quality of sand, absence/ discontinuity of horizontal bands, excessive size of openings in load-bearing walls and improper foundation. We wish to bring to the notice of the readers of The Indian Concrete Journal, similar observations made by the discussers (Dar et al, 2017).