MOIN UDDIN
The developers of high-rise buildings are confident that their properties are safe and habitable even after an earthquake of 7.6 magnitudes hit the country on April 25, 2015. According to Min Man Shrestha, General Secretary of Nepal Land & Housing Developers’ Association, “In the overall situation, high rise buildings and apartments are safe. Right now we cannot calculate the exact loss faced by the realty sector but our engineers are doing a survey and will come up with the exact data in another 10 to 12 days.” According to him, since most of the housing companies are insured the damage will be compensated.

“The problem is not as grievous as it’s made to sound,” says Dekendra Kumar Shrestha, Executive Director of Downtown Housing Co P Ltd.He says that there are a few deep cracks on the walls but the structures have far from collapsed. The total investment of Downtown Housing stands at Rs 1.25 billion and City View Apartments at Rs 420 million.

Shrestha also says that their high rise apartments are insured and the loss will be covered by insurance companies. He further informs, “As of now, the market share of high-rise apartments is only 2.5 per cent when compared to individual houses.”

The other high rise buildings who have faced damages are Cityscape Apartment, Westar Properties, and Sunrise Apartments among others. “As most high rise buildings have suffered structural damage the reputation of housing companies is affected but our apartments are still safe and habitable,” says a staff at Clean Developers Pvt Ltd . She says that their Central Park apartment is cracked in most places and engineers are on site for inspections

She adds, “The housing companies’ need to be monitored by the government and only the ones who are legally certified should be given permits to build high rise apartments.” As per her, if the report indicates that the structures have to be rebuilt from scratch then they will do so. She also says that it is too early for them to estimate their exact losses.

The buildings in Kathmandu are most affected by the earthquake. Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, Immediate past president of Nepal Land & Housing Developers’ Association (NLHDA) says, “Around 70 per cent of high rise buildings were affected but are safe and 30 per cent are in a dilapidated condition.” According to him, the newly constructed 16 storey housing apartment at Kalikasthan is cracked. Also, the upper part of the Civil Trade Centre (CTC) at Sundhara has been damaged. How-ever, he as sures that the foundations of those buildings remain unscathed.

According to Prakash Bajracharya of Bajra & Shangrila Residency Pvt Ltd, “Our high rise apartments are secured. Aside from some cracks on the walls our apartments have not seen much damage.”

Sharing a similar sentiment, Hemant Golcha, one of the directors of Shangrila Housing Pvt Ltd said that their apartments were intact with only a few minor damages. “We invested Rs 2 billion while constructing Sun City apartments and the damages will be compensated by the insurance companies,” he says.

According to Buddhi Narayan, Kathmandu only recently adapted to living in high rise buildings. It had been only a couple of years since people were open to the idea of owning an apartment instead of stand alone houses. He says, “Now after this calamity, buyers’ feel cheated and not many will want to invest in apartments.”

Solution
Nepal Engineers Association, Society of Nepalese Architects, NLHDA and geologist will now have to test apartments technically and come up with an explanation for the damage done. “We concluded that there has been negligence and no supervision during the construction phase of most high rise buildings,” says Buddhi Narayan.

source:MOIN UDDIN(2015),"High rise buildings after the Earthquake", The Himalayan Times,2 May 2015