Park View Horizon Apartment, which suffered the greatest damage among Kathmandu ’s luxury apartment buildings from the April 25 earthquake, has defied the government’s directive to submit a convincing Detailed Damage Assessment (DDA) report.

A government team had pasted red stickers, signifying unsafe for immediate use, to Park View Horizon at Basundhara and Oriental Apartment Phase II at Kuleshwor after conducting an assessment of their status. The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) had then instructed both the developers to get a DDA done through a third party.

Oriental Apartment and Park View Horizon have submitted their DDA reports. However, the government did not accept them citing lack of proper details and clarity.

“The report contained nothing in detail. Reading the report, we could just get the facts and details that our team had found during the assessment of the building. There is nothing beyond it,” said Buddhi Sagar Thapa, head of the Kathmandu Division at the DUDBC. “We had asked the builder to come up with another DDA with 15 days.”

According to Thapa, the second deadline for the builder expired in mid-June. “We are unaware about what’s going on. The DUDBC will soon write to the property developer asking about the whereabouts of its directive.”

Meanwhile, the DUDBC has accepted the DDA submitted by Oriental Apartment Phase II. The government agency also conducted a verification of the DDA. “The document submitted by Oriental complied with our guidelines and was clear,” Thapa said, adding that the DUDBC had told the property builder to conduct a Seismic Vulnerability Assessment.

According to Thapa, blocks K and L of Oriental Apartment Phase II have been impacted severely by the earthquake. The builder has been asked to conduct a Seismic Vulnerability Assessment for one of the two buildings. “Since the two building blocks are close together, we have asked the developer to hold a test in one of the units. The report of the seismic vulnerability test will give a clear picture of the action the building requires,” Thapa said.

Similarly, the DUDBC has been conducting field verifications of the DDAs submitted by buildings receiving yellow stickers. Currently, studies are underway at Cityscape Apartment in Hattiban, Lalitpur and Central Park, Bishalnagar, Kathmandu .

“The field verification of other apartment buildings receiving yellow tickers will be conducted soon. Since we have to examine all the aspects minutely, it takes time to complete the verification,” Thapa said.  The government had directed the developers of 12 apartment buildings in Kathmandu to get their DDAs done by a third party and submit the reports within two weeks. The DUDBC’s move followed complaints lodged by people living near the apartment buildings.   

An assessment carried out by the government had categorized two apartments as being unsafe and given them red stickers, 31 apartment buildings got yellow stickers which means they can be used after appropriate repairs, and seven high-rise buildings were awarded green stickers which means they are safe to live in.

source: sanjeev giri, the kathmandu post,5 august 2015