ABSTRACT
Disaster risk reduction in cities of the developing world stresses the importance of a resilient and robust building stock to address urban vulnerability. Recent building collapses have resulted in massive losses of lives and property and have led authorities to investigate, improve, and streamline building regulations. Building safety became a national priority in India after the January 2001 Gujarat earthquake, in which approximately 14,000 people lost their lives. Subsequent investigations showed that this earthquake was within the expected seismicity of the region, but that the buildings had not been constructed to seismic standards and had used substandard materials, resulting in massive building collapses when the earthquake struck. In 2005, massive floods in Mumbai resulted in over 1,000 casualties; again, investigations revealed that substandard buildings had been constructed in vulnerable and low-lying areas. A string of isolated building failures also highlighted the need for building regulation: in November 2011 a building collapsed in east Delhi, killing 71 people and injuring 100 others, and in April 2013 another seven-story building collapsed in Thane, killing 74 people. This building was constructed illegally and occupied by construction workers and their families. About 20 people were taken into custody, including senior municipal officials who were accused of taking bribes and turning a blind eye to illegal and inexpensive construction, believed to be part of the powerful nexus of builders, politicians, municipal officers, and police. The most horrific collapse, that of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which housed several garment manufacturing factories and killed over 1,100 people in April 2013, is still fresh in people’s memories. This was also blamed on substandard construction materials and a blatant disregard for building safety codes. In all of these incidents, subsequent investigations exposed substandard and/or illegal construction as the main reason for the buildings’ failures and the loss of lives.
