BANGALORE: Faculty members of Bangalore University’s Civil Engineering Department have come forward to help the public to ascertain the fitness of the site of construction, following Tuesday’s incident, in which a 5-storey building in Electronics City tilted to its right. The faculty members, who possess expertise in Civil and Soil Engineering, have blamed Tuesday’s incident to the failure of the contractor and the owner in getting the soil tested before starting the construction on the site. “As per news reports, I suspect that there was no soil investigation done before the construction began. Ascertaining the fitness of the soil is very crucial for the safety and economy of the building,” said Dr H N Ramesh, chairperson, Department of Civil Engineering, BU. Explaining further the importance of soil investigation, Dr Ramesh said, “Soil investigation is done to know the strength of the soil, its compressibility and permeability. All the physical characteristics of the soil should be tested for a 5-storey building, up to a minimum depth of 10 metres at an interval of 1.5 metres. If the soil is weak, it has to be treated.”“In Karnataka, soil investigation is not mandatory. The state government has to think about this in the interest of the longevity of buildings,” said Dr Ramesh. He added, “The soil investigation report will tell the owner how to go about construction of the building. In the case of the Electronics City building, I have learnt that the soil was weak and it was not treated. Or, the soil investigation (if done) was ignored.” “As a government organisation, we are ready to help people. Soil investigation should be done for the safety of the building,” Dr Ramesh said.
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