Poor construction led to pancake collapse of buildings after earthquake in Turkiye

• 113 builders interrogated
• Orders to arrest issued

Ankara (Turkiye) – So far the death toll in Turkiye has risen to 34,000; and is expected to reach 50,000.  Although more than 6,000 buildings have collapsed, some are still standing strong. This means buildings built with poor quality material have collapsed. Therefore, 113 builders are being interrogated by the Government. The Government has issued an order to arrest some of them.

Experts say Turkiye has the regulations in place to prevent such a catastrophe. But they are only applied loosely by construction companies. The builders disregarded the warnings by expert archaeologists and engineers.

(Credit : BBC)

“On paper, standards are respected, with contracts entrusted to private companies in charge of checking them,” Istanbul architect Aykut Koksal said. But oversight of these agreements is lax, he added, giving builders greater leeway in following – or not – the rules. Heavy bureaucratic procedures also end up diluting who is responsible if or when something goes wrong, Erdik said.

Editorial perspective

Builders in India also ignore the rules while constructing buildings. Therefore, if earthquake of high magnitude occurred in India, there would be a great possibility of such buildings collapsing. Hence, our Government should learn from this tragedy and plan stringent strategies by interrogating professional builders with regard to their building projects.