Safety norms a must for new buildings, says GMC in Amaravati

Amaravati: The construction of new buildings, including apartments and shopping malls is on the rise in and around Guntur city for the past few months.

The government employees will shift from Hyderabad to the temporary Secretariat at Velagapudi from June 27. The realtors and individuals are hoping for a good demand for rented houses in view of the shifting of employees and constructing various types of buildings.

According to the reports, nearly 10,000 new buildings are under construction in and around Guntur city and a majority of the constructions did not follow the security measures. Interestingly, monitoring of all these buildings would be a Herculean task to the officials.

The recent retaining wall collapse of under-construction shopping mall showed the lack of safety measures at construction sites. So, the Guntur Municipal Corporation started awareness programmes among builders, promoters and realtors for the strict implementation of safety measures. K. Balaji Reddy, who is constructing a multi-storied building, said that the cost would further increase with the strict implementation of all types of safety norms like putting excavators, ambulance, cranes and other safety equipment at the construction site.

He said that the presence of mixed lose and hard soil would affect the constructions. He said that the soil test should be made compulsory for every construction with multiple samples to restrain collapse of soils heaps.

Deputy commissioner of labour R.K. Viswanathan said that their department instructed the contractors, builders, promoters and realtors to get proper permission to start construction of buildings from the GMC and to inform the labour department about starting and completion of works with all details of workforce.

He mentioned that workers should wear helmet, boots, gloves and jackets and welders should use black glasses. The builder/promoter/owner should provide first aid box and should display the details of approved permission/plan at the work site.

The builder will be held responsible for any untoward incident at the construction place, Mr Viswanathan said and stated that the labour department is conducting awareness programmes to make the workers and builders aware about safety measures.

GMC commissioner S. Nagalakshmi said that the GMC conducted awareness programmes directing builders to follow safety norms under GOMS: 545 and 168.
She warned about stern punishment to the violators of safety norms and appealed to the public to cooperate for the smooth construction of buildings with the help of safety measures.