Shimla may come crashing down the hill

If you are considering building a house in the popular resort town of Himachal Pradesh, consider again. There are strong chances of this town crashing down the hill, warns a study.

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has come out with a survey declaring a whopping 25 per cent of the area in the old Shimla unsafe because it falls in the sinking zone.

Majority of the 175,00 population of the resort town lives in old Shimla, a part of the town which has majority of the population of the hill station and was built as the summer capital of colonial British India in the early nineteenth century. The value of real estate is one of the highest here among smaller cities of northern India.

According to the just released GSI survey report,"Atleast 25 per cent of the area in old Shimla isn't suitable for house construction and if proper drainage and sewerage steps aren't taken , the unsafe zone could rise to 35 per cent in thirty years."

The GSI recently carried out the survey to study the nature of the soil in the town and found that the southern regions of fingask, shankli, kaithu police lines is fast turning into a sinking zone.

The city heart of the town including ram bazaar, lakkar bazaar, krishnanagar, lalapani and kanlog are almost completely in the sinking zone of the state.

Several buildings in downtown Shimla have been declared unsafe for many years. There have also been rising cases of a few newly constructed buildings collapsing in fingask and adjoining areas in the southern parts of the town as in recent years, especially during the monsoon when sinking damage is most.

In a similar study in 1976,14 per cent of old Shimla was declared in the sinking zone which has almost doubled thirty years later.

The GSI report attributes improper drainage in upper parts of the town which was primarily causing the sinking among other factors.

Other factors are the natural rock joints, and dumping of debris at several places due to large-scale construction which made the surface fragile and is unable to support the weight of buildings. The GSI has warned that the entire sewerage system must be overhauled to avoid further damage.

"New construction in the sinking zone should only be allowed by the civic authorities after proper specifications," the study cautions.

"Besides improper drainage, the other major reason for causing this sinking zone is the haphazard construction of multi-storied buildings and hotels in the fragile zone in the past few decades," said Birinder Singh Malhans, INTACH convenor Shimla.

"The civic officials have to act fast to avoid further damage to old Shimla, most of which falls in the heritage zone of the hill station," Malhans told Business Standard.