Archived Press Releases
"GHI Hosts Delhi Colleagues in California"
Released: August 1, 2005
Millions of people in urban areas throughout India stand to benefit from a pilot project now underway in Delhi, India to improve the seismic safety of existing buildings there. India has one of the greatest seismic risks in the world. About 610 million people reside in the area of highest seismic risk in the north, where there have been seven large-magnitude earthquakes during the last 100 years. To help reduce this risk, USAID funded GeoHazards International (GHI), a Palo Alto-based non-profit serving earthquake-threatened communities world wide, to work with the Government of India on the transfer of American earthquake retrofit technology and experience. The pilot project, US Assistance to Seismic Retrofitting of Lifeline Buildings in Delhi, India, will analyze five groups of buildings in Delhi and facilitate a potential nation-wide movement to reduce earthquake risk in India. "Lifeline" buildings are needed after earthquakes. They include hospitals, schools, police headquarters and key government buildings. The 3-year project, initiated in 2002 by GHI, includes preparing designs for retrofit of the selected lifeline buildings, developing decision-making procedures, building capacity for similar work elsewhere in India, and fostering relationships among Indian and US engineers.
In April, American experts participated in a peer review panel meeting held in Delhi. Now GHI will host 14 Indian earthquake engineers and government officials responsible for earthquake safety who are coming from Delhi to the San Francisco Bay Area the week of August 7-14 for the second peer review panel meeting. The visitors will collaborate with their California counterparts in Palo Alto, and participate in on-site tours of earthquake retrofit projects in Berkeley at the University of California campus, and selected buildings owned by the cities of Berkeley and San Francisco. "Local experts will serve as guides to demonstrate the lessons Californians learned when retrofitting buildings during the last 30 years," according to L. Thomas Tobin of GHI, who serves on the project's U.S.-Indian Peer Review Panel. "Improved seismic safety requires cutting-edge engineering 'know how' and wise facilities management practices. This visit by our colleagues from Delhi will strengthen their capacity to reduce seismic risks in the earthquake-prone cities of India," says Tobin.
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