The main causes behind the collapse of a multi-story factory in Lahore, which claimed 45 lives and left several others injured were inadequate capacity of structure to bear additional load at the third and fourth floor, failure of construction design and use of poor quality material.
According to a report of technical inquiry conducted by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) following the collapse of a polythene bag factory at Sundar Industrial Estate, the other causes of the collapse of the multi-story building have included the lack of supervision of approving authority, cracks developed due to earthquake of October 2015, improper frame structure, non-monolithic construction and use of substandard material.
Engineer Jawad Slim Qureshi, Chairman of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) presented the inquiry report at a meeting of Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights, chaired by Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi.
The report further reveals that poor and low strength concrete was used, which had inadequate capacity to bear extra load and which resulted in concrete crushing. Instead of periphery beam brick, masonry was constructed in frame structure and reduced column capacity made the building incapable to bear the load, the report says. Following the test of material at Cement Research and Development Institute (CRDI) laboratory, it was found that poor quality and low strength concrete (I:3:6) was used which had inadequate capacity to bear the load. Concrete was not well graded having large aggregate size, it says.
The report says, ordinary moment resisting frame (OMRF) was followed instead of Intermediate moment resisting frame (IMRF) for seismic zone of Lahore (2A) as per building of Pakistan seismic provision 2007. The additional two stories and load of machines developed unbalanced moments in periphery columns which triggered the collapse.
The construction of multi story building was allowed without approved structural design, according to the report. The report recommended that construction be allowed after the approval of architecture and structure design by approved architect/consultant of industrial estates. The critical stages of construction including footing, beam and column must be supervised by the approved engineering agency, the report further recommended.
Every construction sites must be supervised by PEC registered professional engineers, it suggested. Senator Saeed Ghani said that action should be taken against the officials responsible for monitoring of the building. Senator Farooq Hamid Naek said that first we need to make law regarding the improvement and implantation of existing building for Islamabad and then expend it to the four provinces. "The existing building code framed in 2007 is nothing more than a beautiful book as the relevant government had made no efforts for giving it a legal cover," he said.
The committee reviewed the matter related to the implementation of building codes and asked PEC, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the ministry of housing and works and Capital Development Authority (CDA) to prepare a draft of buildings codes within five weeks and send it to the ministry of law and justice for fine-tuning. The ministry of law and justice needs to present it before the committee after making some necessary changes in it, Javed Abbasi said.
Abbasi said that after making legislation regarding implementation of buildings codes at federal level, the provincial government would also be requested to adopt the same law. The PEC, CDA and NDMA gave a detailed briefing to the committee members in connection with improvement in the building codes and its implementation. The committee was further informed that many multi-story buildings have been constructed in Karachi in violation of building codes and the relevant department has identified 230 multi-story residential buildings that are dangerous for living.
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