Hyderabad municipal corporation ignores building code

Hyderabad: No building code is followed in Greater Hyderabad, though the state falls under zone II (low density area) for earthquakes. The building code is mostly ignored by the GHMC, town planning wing while approving building permission.

The country is divided into five zone and states sharing borders with Nepal fall under Zone V (high density zone owing to the fault line). The state is not an earth quake prone area; however the building code needs to be followed.

A town planning official said, “Any structure will have to follow certain engineering specification (technically) according to the Municipal Act. The building code is part of the specification and this indicates what type of material needs to be used during construction. It may be steel or cement or concrete, there are standards depending on which seismic zone the city falls in. The whole country is divided into seismic zones and depending on the zone the building code is followed. Mostly the code is important for the areas that are prone to earth quakes. Hyderabad falls under low density zone, not prone to severe seismic activity.”