Workers demolish a building near the Sikkim Government College at Tadong on Tuesday. Picture by Prabin Khaling

Gangtok, Sept. 27: The East district administration has issued dismantling orders to 11 multi-storeyed buildings in Gangtok and Singtam as the damaged structures have become a threat to adjoining houses.

Six of these buildings, with five or more floors, will have to be demolished fully. In the other buildings, only the vulnerable floors will be dismantled.

Although Gangtok has a height restriction of five storeys because it is located in a vulnerable seismic zone, civic norms are often flouted.

Notices under Section 144 of the CrPc — under which evacuation orders can be given — have been issued to owners of the 11 buildings in the past couple of days by the district administration, an official said. Three of these buildings are in Singtam, 35km from Gangtok, and the others in the state capital itself.

Three more buildings have been recommended to the state government for partial demolition by an assessment team.

The team has also recommended that the already collapsed building at Baluwakhani in Gangtok, belonging to Bhaichung Bhutia’s mentor and state sports secretary Karma P. Bhutia, needs to be dismantled and the debris cleared. The five-storeyed house collapsed when an adjoining six-storey structure tilted and fell on it on Friday night.

A team consisting of officials from the urban development and mines and geology departments and researchers from IIT-Roorkee conducted a survey of 406 buildings in and around Gangtok and Singtam yesterday.

“Six buildings are to be totally demolished while the floors of the remaining five need to be dismantled,” said Sikkim government spokesperson K.S. Topgay. The assessment is that around 70 buildings need to be evacuated but some of these can be strengthened with retro-fittings (or iron bars), he said.

“Demolition orders were issued as the team felt that these buildings were posing danger to other buildings and residents. The owners have to demolish the buildings within three days on the receipt of the order on their own expenses. If not, the government will be demolishing the buildings and costs will recovered from the owners,” said an official.

The government had announced that Rs 50,000 would be given for major damage. For minor damage and cracks, the compensation would range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 depending on the nature of the house.

Sources said a demolition squad from New Delhi would be reaching Gangtok today. The owners of the seven-storeyed Hotel Superview Himalchuli, one of the buildings to be totally demolished, have appealed to the state government to give them time to bring in experts so that options can be explored to save the building.

“Instead of going straight for demolition, we request the state government to give us some time to explore options to find out if the hotel can be saved. The government has to help the people. We have contacted experts in Calcutta who are specialists in restoring damaged structures. We want to use the available technology of retrofitting or column shifting. Such action has saved some buildings in Gangtok, which had been ordered demolition during the 2006 earthquake,” said Satish Bardewa, son of S.K. Bardewa who owns the hotel.

The hotel has some 30 rooms. When it suffered cracks during the September 18 quake, all its occupants were evacuated. The hotel is closed now.

Satish said the demolition cost alone would run up to more than Rs 20 lakh considering that the building has to be pulled down first by hired labourers and then the debris transported for dumping outside Gangtok. “Constructing another building from scratch is another big issue,” said Satish.

The owners of a damaged five-storeyed building at Tadong near Sikkim Government College, however, have already hired labourers to demolish it. The building, constructed during the early 80s, had been damaged by the quake is also among the six that has to be totally pulled down.

“Considering the damage to the building, we are already prepared to demolish it. Once the order was given to us a couple of days ago, we brought workers to demolish it. The shopkeepers and tenants of this building have moved out along with the owner and family members,” said Robin Gurung who is supervising the demolition.

The top two floors are now being demolished.

“We are not asking for any any help from the government at this time. We are more concerned about the danger the building possesses to other adjoining structures. First we want to remove this threat and later on, if the government gives us aid, then it’s ok,” said Gurung.

The building had tilted dangerously close to a three-storeyed building of businessman Raj Kumar Prasad. “We were scared. Now we can breathe in relief as some demolition has taken place reducing the weight on our building,” he said.

According to East district collector D Anandan, more than 900 houses in the district have collapsed and more than 5,000 houses suffered major damage. More than 10,000 houses have suffered minor damages in East district, he said.

The district authorities are touring the affected areas and preparing a list of damaged houses to provide compensation as announced by the state government.