Hundreds of engineers deployed to check safety of houses

KATHMANDU, May 3: In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, hundreds of engineers have been deployed as volunteers in the Kathmandu valley to check whether the houses with cracked walls are livable.

Currently, over 1,500 engineers have been working to ensure the quality check of the houses at the call of the Nepal Engineers' Association (NEA).

The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction has been checking the quality of only government buildings while the government agencies were seeking Association's consultation to check the quality of the private houses.Chair of NEA Dhrubaraj Thapa said that civil, architecture, structural and geological engineers were deployed as volunteers to assess the level of damage of the private houses caused by the earthquakes.

The engineers have been divided in more than 200 groups after providing them with an orientation and were deployed in the three districts from Thursday.

The NEA has said the engineers would visit the private houses from morning to evening after getting calls from the locals in 015010251, 015010252, 015010253 and 9841260026.

The assessment of the private houses in the capital city would be completed within a week and then the engineers would be sent to other districts out of valley, the NEA central member Bishwaraj Kafle said.

The houses that are not livable have been marked red while that are livable with precaution for short time are marked yellow and the building with green are appropriate for living.

Meanwhile, the job of quality check of the government buildings and offices is in the final stage.

The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction is taking stock of the government offices and buildings that they are livable or not after the devastative quake.

The Department has pasted red (not livable), yellow (livable with precaution) and green (livable) stickers after the onsite inspection of the government buildings and offices.

Senior Division Engineer Kashi Prasad Gupta-led 6-member committee has already visited the offices and residences of the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Speaker, Chief Justice, Chief of Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

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