Malaysia Real Estate

[JomyRoy]

Following the unprecedented damage caused to life and property by the recent earthquake in Kashmir and floods in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, the real estate developers, professionals, government agencies and above all property buyers need to take preventive measures to minimize damage by working towards safer habitat. There is greater onus on consumers to ensure that they are buying or building a resilient and safe structure.

The Indian sub continent is highly prone to natural disasters. Floods, cyclones, earthquakes, etc are a recurrent phenomenon. As per the latest seismic zoning map brought out by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), over 65 percent of the country is prone to earthquake of intensity MSK VII or more. The Home Ministry under the Urban Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction Project (UEVRP) has identified 38 cities across the country that are susceptible to earthquakes.

Typically the majority of the construction in the cities and Cochin Real Estate are not earthquake resistant. As such, it is most important in the medium and long term to formulate strategies to reduce the vulnerability and losses. There is a need to make appropriate vulnerability assessment studies to determine structural and non-structural safety of buildings due to natural hazards. Vulnerability reduction measures like retrofitting of non-structural elements, fire safety measures need to be adopted. There is also need for every state to adopt techno-legal and techno financial regime including land use zoning and protection measures and hazard and disaster assessment respectively.

National Disaster Management Division of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has drawn up National Programme for Capacity Building of Architects in Earthquake Risk Management (NPCBAERM) with a view to lessen the vulnerability of buildings. As part of this programme, MHA has advised the states and UTs to amend building byelaws to incorporate the BIS seismic codes for construction in the concerned zone and ensure that the plans/designs of the government construction departments are in accordance with the BIS codes for these zones. MHA has asked that in the municipal areas it should be made mandatory for the builders/buyers to submit building laws prepared by an architect and certified by a structural engineer to get building construction permission and make architect and structural engineer accountable for adhering to the BIS codes/building bye-laws.
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