Civil Trade Centre in Sundhara, an upscale shopping mall, which has been severely damaged by the massive earthquake of April 25, with deep cracks visible even from outside, has raised concern about safety of people and other structures near it.

The beams, walls and pillars have developed multiple cracks that have weakened the nine-storey building. Glass windows are shattered, some of the walls have been ripped and bricks have fallen. The building, softened by the massive jolt, has tilted.

When inaugurated in January, 2013, its builders had claimed that the structure was built with all safety measures and that it was capable of sustaining a major earthquake.

But the building weakened by the April 25 quake has become a threat to pedestrians, drivers and passengers and other structures around it.

“Nowadays I tend to speed up so as to move past the building as soon as possible,” said Deepak Parajuli, a microbus driver, who does several trips along the Sundhara route every day. “It’s frightening to be in front of the building.”

The Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited, Kathmandu Metropolitan City, China Town supermarket and Central Jail are some of the populated institutions around the CTC building. People living there and pedestrians walking and motorists driving past the structure fear that bricks and other structures falling off the building, even if it does not collapse anytime soon, could hurt them.

Dhanapati Sapkota, chief of Implementation and Enforcement Department at KMC, said, “Every time we feel aftershocks, we get scared. We run to the open space of the Nepali Army Headquarters every time there are aftershocks.”

The KMC had tried to hold talks with members of Civil Group, the owner of the mall, regarding dismantling the building, but they did not show up, he said. “The government should demolish the structure as soon as possible or else it may collapse any time,” he said.

The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction and Nepal Engineers’ Association have jointly assigned seven teams of engineers for Rapid Visual Damage Assessment of the damaged houses, government offices, hospitals, media houses and apartment buildings. But the RVDA teams are yet to inspect malls and business complexes like CTC mall.

Kabir Rajbhandari, team leader of RVDA, said, “We will inspect business complexes and malls only after we are requested for damage assessment.”

source: the himalayan times,9 may 2015