Tracking of public buildings' stability in State slips through cracks in govt

The Public Works Department (PWD), which has been assigned with the responsibility of issuing periodic structural stability certificates for public buildings, to ensure that such buildings are safe and structurally sound has, so far, failed to maintain any records on the same. While it is mandatory that all buildings, be it new or old, obtain stability certificates, and renew them every three years after inspection by engineers specifically appointed for the purpose, the department has no records either on the older structures which have failed to obtain or continue with expired certificates.

Senior PWD officials, who state that “any building that fails to get the certificate stands the risk of demolition”, however, admit that they don’t maintain any records on the number of public buildings that are unstable in the state. These certificates are issued by the PWD, based on the reports filed by its field engineers authorised by the purpose, or by the engineers specially appointed by the District Collector and included in the Panel of Private Practicing Engineers for this purpose.

A few months ago, a notice was issued by the district Collectors in TN, listing those private schools that have not obtained structural stability certificates. In the list, over 25 schools in the city were ‘warned’, the majority of which were Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools. One such was Emmanuel Foundation Matriculation School in Surapet. But the school authorities maintain that they obtained the certificate a few years ago and are periodically renewing it.

“We had applied for the certificate a few years ago, and we received it too. It is being renewed every three years,” said the principal of Emmanuel Foundation Matriculation School in Surapet. “A few days after we applied for the certificate, furnishing the necessary school documents, the PWD officials inspected the building, mainly checking the strength of pillars and roof,” he added.

PWD officials, however, claimed that this is not the case with all the schools that have been slapped with notice. A CBSE school in Ambattur is yet to obtain a structural stability certificate from the government and has now received a warning from the District Collector. “In most of the cases, it is lack of awareness about the law that has resulted in such a situation,” an official pointed out.

There are around 60,000 public buildings, under 10 categories, that come under the PWD purview in the State. These include schools, colleges (including tutorial colleges), universities, hostels, libraries and hospitals. These buildings should get a licence to operate from the Collector’s office or taluk office concerned. “To get such a licence, one has to produce a stability certificate from the engineers authenticated by the District Collectors, which alone will be valuable. Later, an application needs to be filed for fire safety clearance from Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, if applicable,” a PWD official said.

During the inspection, the field engineers are expected to dig the foundation of the building, check the soil conditions and stability of the walls, pillars and roof of the building. “Based on the inspection, the certificate will be issued within 30 days,” said K Sathyamurthy, Joint Chief Engineer, PWD.

“We don’t get any extra money to issue the certificate, whereas the panel of engineers authorised by the District Collectors is supposed to get Rs 5,000 as per the Government Order (GO). But many engineers do not follow the directives and collect around Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000 to issue certificates for the buildings, often overlooking stability issues,” said another PWD official. “This often puts public visiting the buildings in danger.”

Sheik Mohammed, State president, Tamil Nadu Collectorate Chartered Engineer Association, who runs a private stability certificate service for more than 25 years, said, “As per Tamil Nadu Public Building (Licensing) Act 1965, every engineer with the recommendation of the Board of Engineers should register with the Collectorate. The registered engineers will be approved under Class 1A, 2 and 3. In Tamil Nadu, the structural stability certificate should be obtained, valid for three years, for any building.”

“The engineers belonging to Class 1A will be issuing certificates for buildings that are worth Rs 50 lakh and above. Class 2 category engineers will issue certificates for buildings worth Rs 10 lakh and above and Class 3 engineers to structures which are not less than 100 square feet. If any public building fails to get certificates, further action will be taken by the government. The fine is not a fixed one and varies according to the building,” he added.

After receiving the application from the public, the engineers inspect the building based on the stability of pillars, walls and the roof. “If the building is stable for five years, they issue a certificate valid for three years, which should be renewed thereupon. The stability certificate will be issued within four to five days once the inspection is done,” said another engineer. “If there is any fault in the structural stability, the certificate will not be issued by the officials. In case, if there is a chance for rectifying the same, they should apply for the certificate again after carrying out the necessary changes.”

The engineers in the panel claim that they do face several difficulties on different issues during the inspection. “We don’t normally reject any application to issue safety certificate to public buildings, even if there is any fault in the building. We will ask them to go in for renovation or take the necessary steps to make the building strong. Even when we inspect second-hand buildings, where there could be many structural safety issues involved, we don’t straightaway reject them. Rather, we give them time to rectify the problem and do the necessary alterations,” said Murthy, Manager, Con-Tech Research Lab.

According to officials, the real problem lies in lack of coordination. The Revenue offices, such as the Collectorate and tahsildar office, that maintain the list of commercial establishments in their region, have no proper coordination with the PWD, to ensure that structural stability of the buildings has not expired.

“We do not keep track of the buildings that have shut down operations and buildings that have outlived their lifespan and are still running. The records are maintained by the Revenue department. Unless they alert us on the failure in the renewal of licences, we cannot keep track of the structural stability of buildings,” a senior official noted.

Whether this argument makes our school, college and hospital buildings safe is anybody’s guess.