Earthquake: NCR realtors say they adhere to all safety norms

NEW DELHI: Amid concerns over high-rise buildings' ability to withstand earthquakes, realtors' body CREDAI today said developers in the national capital region are adhering to all safety norms to ensure structural strength of the buildings to face such natural disasters.

A strong earthquake recently hit Nepal and some parts of India, following which concerns have been raised about the safety standards of high-rise buildings.

The industry body said that that Delhi-NCR region did not witness any damage to buildings despite heavy tremors.

"Since Delhi/NCR comes under seismic zone IV, no effort is spared so that all structures built by the developers' community are as per norms that ensure requisite structural strength to withstand an earthquake," CREDAI-NCR President Manoj Gaur said in a statement.

He highlighted that stringent approval mechanisms are in place to meet the highest safety standards comprising three layers of approval.

Gaur said that the project designs have to be approved by qualified architects. To bolster safety norms, every project structure, layout and design is vetted by engineering experts from institutions such as IIT and NIT, and is put through various tests.

"Strict compliance is done at site by developers which involve regular site visits by structure consultants and monitoring of overall execution work by qualified engineers. At CREDAI, we have made it mandatory for all developers to adhere to these rules diligently," Gaur said.

Stating that the safety and wellbeing of citizens and customers is prime moral responsibility, he said the industry is willing to put-in best expertise in building structure, design and layout.

"Despite heavy Tremor, there is not even a minor loss in whole region which proves that quality development is taking place in NCR region. Only well designed multi-storied buildings can stay erected in earthquake because they are designed accordingly," Gaur said.