AAGN and IIA Noida Centre organized Event on Making Noida and Greater Noida Earthquake Resilient

Greater Noida (04/05/2023): Architects Association of Greater Noida (AAGN) and the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) Noida Centre organized an event on “Making Noida and Greater Noida Earthquake Resilient” at Hotel Crowne Plaza, Greater Noida. The event comprised a keynote address and a panel discussion by experts in the field of Architecture and Building Construction Technology.

Dr. Ajay Chaurasia Chief Scientist, CSIR—Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee was the Keynote speaker. He brought out that there would be extensive damage in case of occurrence of earthquakes due to the dense built environment and large population. He highlighted relevant portions of the various building codes in order to enumerate the measures that should be taken to make the built environment earthquake resilient. He briefed the professionals on measures to be taken for new construction as well as retrofitting techniques to make existing buildings earthquake resistant. The talk was followed by a panel discussion and question and answer session. The panelists said that keeping in mind the earthquake related challenges to the built environment, there is also a need for public awareness campaigns to construct buildings using good practices which are given in the various building codes and standards. Moreover, architects play an extremely important role in the building industry and can help in spreading public awareness. Professor Pradeep Kumar Ramancharla, Director CSIR-CBRI (Chief Guest) and Dr. D. P.
Kanungo, Chief Scientist, CSIR-CBRI (Guest of Honor) also enlightened the gathering of over 100 architects from the area on the measures to be taken and other techno legal and regulatory issues to be addressed. A need for synergy between the professionals and regulatory authorities was also dealt upon.

Prominent architects in the panel discussion included Balbir Verma, Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the National Information Centre of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE), IIT Kanpur, Col Anuj Srivastava, Chairman IIA Noida Centre and Dr. Harish Tripathi, Principal Architect, ARHTA, participated, discussed and suggested ways to make the city resilient to earthquakes. Bhavesh Trivedi from ACC Ambuja and Adani Cement who was the sponsor, also addressed the gathering.

The event saw active participation from the audience which included members of AAGN, IIA Noida Centre including Vivek Bhati, Pradeep Kharbanda, Babika Goel, Gaurav Saini, Mamta Saini, Sheily Shrivastav, Christopher Paul, Mohd. Nadeem, Anu Shishodia, Mohd. Adil, Mayank Pratap, Sawan Chandra and Dhruv Saini.