Ministry of Construction: 90% of buildings in Dushanbe failed the seismic resistance test

As of February 22, 2023, the Ministry of Construction of Tajikistan decided to check the earthquake resistance of new developments in Dushanbe, Khujand and Bokhtar. True, only the construction companies’ documentation was checked, and according to it, the city needs to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch…

By April 1 the inspections of new developments were completed only for the capital. According to the Committee’s deputy chairman Ochildi Ochildiev, "first we checked the developers’ documents and wanted to move on to the stage of physical inspection".

"But now we are even afraid to do it, because the results of the first inspection showed that 90% of the buildings either do not have permitting documents or they are improperly drawn up", - he said.

According to the specialist, the second stage of the analysis involved checking the buildings using special equipment that is installed on the building’s roof.

"On March 23 we conducted an experiment with the new equipment in Dushanbe – for a start we checked a few buildings in several microdistricts. At that time, many residents took our experiment for a real earthquake, - says Ochildiev. – Many buildings really did shake a lot, so we are now not sure whether this second stage should be carried out, so as not to frighten the citizens".

The deputy head of the ministry noted that the Commission engaged in checking the buildings will probably make a more painless decision – to check the new developments with the help of other state-of-the-art equipment that can determine the reinforcement by the method of opening up the walls.

"For this, several sections of the load-bearing walls in the buildings will need to be chiseled out", - explains Ochildiev.

What do developers say?

The developers whose buildings the Commission’s specialists managed to check say that their buildings will withstand even 12 points.

"Our building is sturdy, it can withstand a full 12 points – I checked it myself, - says a representative of the construction company "Firebgar", whose buildings are built along the "Dushanbinka" river. – The problem is simply that we have no acceptance documents, because we have not yet put it into operation. But people have been living there for 10 years already, and no one complains".

Another developer of the company "StroyElitSuperKlassService" - Tabar Pulloev is confident that new developments in Dushanbe are built to all the necessary standards.

"We, for example, build elite buildings, everyone knows that we use premium-quality building materials; we only paid a fine for not using piles in the foundation, but they, according to the standards, are needed only for very large structures, while we only have 9-story buildings. But still we paid the fine – 20 thousand somoni, and now according to the documents everything is fine with us", - he noted.

"Asia-Plus" was promised to be told as early as next week what decision the Commission will make on the second stage of checking the buildings in the capital.

Happy April 1 - April Fools’ Day!

Source: News Agency ASIA-Plus