City has more than 20,000 bldgs over 30 yrs old: Survey

Nagpur: If a door-to-door survey done by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) property tax department has anything to go by, the city has 20,016 buildings which are above 30 years old and the civic body’s public works and town planning departments that are responsible for structural stability examination of buildings have no idea.
The property tax department collects information related to age of buildings during its survey for reassessment of properties for levying property tax. The age of the building is one of the factors through which property tax is calculated.
As per the survey, 3,40,467 buildings are of cement concrete and permanent in nature. “Of total such structures, 1,086 buildings are of over 60 years followed by 1,715 between 51 and 60 years, 4,093 between 41 and 50 years and 13,122 between 31 and 40 years for a total of 20,016 buildings above 30 years.
Maximum buildings — 1,45,241 fall under the age category of 11-20 years. Age of 42,063 buildings is 21-30 years and 1,33,147 within 10 years.
The NMC officials TOI talked to said, “There will be no need to conduct a survey if the data readily available with the property tax department.”
Municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar, however, did not respond to TOI’s call.
In fact, the state government, following the regular incidents of collapse of dilapidated buildings, issued a notification on July 8, 2011, making it mandatory for the planning authorities to inspect all buildings by appointing structural engineers, identify structures over 30-year-old and examine structural stability. The civic chiefs were supposed to issue notices to owners of the identified buildings and direct them for repairing and strengthening works. The officials were also supposed to ensure demolition of buildings not suitable for repairing and strengthening.
The government had also made mandatory for owners of the buildings to get structural stability examination of their buildings done if completed 30 years, undertake necessary works and submit structural stability certificate with the planning authorities. The government had even directed the planning authorities to get necessary works done and recover cost from the owners if they failed to undertake the works.
But the civic body did not take any concrete steps to comply with the state government’s notification. In 2013, it identified only 227 dilapidated buildings and issued notices. An intensive survey was never undertaken. The NMC did not even appoint structural engineers for the survey, which was mandatory as per the notification. It just established a panel of structural engineers and asked 10 zone offices to take help of the panel after identifying buildings over 30 years.
Before every monsoon, the NMC zone offices issue a public notice asking owners of the buildings above 30 years to submit structural stability certificate. The NMC officials issue notice to dilapidated buildings only if it received any complaints.
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TABLE
Zone Name
0-10 Years
11-20 Years
21-30 Years
31-40 Years
41-50 Years
51-60 Years
Above 60 Yrs
Total
Ashinagar
28938
23648
9829
1089
151
26
5
79855
Dhantoli
1631
3656
1996
1058
462
295
355
9745
Dharampeth
3084
6040
2188
931
551
420
267
13720
Gandhibagh
1424
4743
3513
1354
494
242
134
12155
Hanuman Nagar
13756
23605
4105
770
233
67
11
52584
Lakadganj
41296
23300
2329
1063
209
81
45
75815
Laxmi Nagar
4204
10737
5909
2504
1043
376
88
28787
Mangalwari
14654
15450
4157
836
346
35
83
36843
Nehru Nagar
17821
21756
5213
1570
249
82
13
58632
Satranjipura
6339
12306
2824
1947
355
91
85
26777
Total
133147
145241
42063
13122
4093
1715
1086
394913