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UET Taxila report on Margalla Towers: Substandard materials responsible for collapse

By Shahzad Malik

ISLAMABAD: The University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, has declared that the material used in the construction of Margalla Towers was substandard, in its report on the collapse of the towers.

Dr Mumtaz Ahmed Kamal, the chairman of the civil engineering department, reported that the building material used in the MT was 50 percent below standard. The report said TOR steel was used in the construction of the buildings while 60-grade deformed steel should have been used for this kind of building.

It said there was misalignment in the columns of the MT in 1993 and the entire building shifted 6 inches on October 8.

“Most of the residents of the building had complained of water leakage from ceilings,” it said.

Japanese expert Dr Yoshiaai Nakano, head of the Fundamental Engineering Institute of the University of Tokyo, along with other experts, visited the Margalla Towers and declared that substandard material was used in the building. Meanwhile, Muazzam Sultan, a member of the Margalla Towers Residents Society, told a press conference on Monday that the inhabitants of the MT pointed out cracks in the building before the deadly earthquake to the building’s owner and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) but it all fell on deaf ears.

He said the inhabitants had filed a petition against Ramazan Khokher, the owner of the Margalla Towers, in the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court in August 2000 for not fixing the damage to the building.

He alleged that the Capital Development Authority had provided accommodation to only 88 quake survivors out of the 143 inhabitants of the building, violating the directions of the Supreme Court. He said the CDA officials had not accommodated 55 affected people yet stating that the 55 had taken apartments on rent.

Ehsan Sadiq, the superintendent of police, told Daily Times that his department had yet to receive report prepared by the university, finding substandard material used in the MT. He said the investigation team had asked the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, and NesPak to give their expert opinion on the collapse of the towers.

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