Corlim VP building declared unsafe, office shifted
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
OLD GOA, JUNE 23
The Corlim panchayat office has been shifted to the panchayat hall on Wednesday, after the building has been declared “structurally unsafe”.
It may be recalled that on May 3, 2010, a portion of concrete in talathi’s room collapsed. Luckily, no one was injured in the incident. Later, the panchayat in its fortnightly meeting passed a resolution to appoint a technical consultant and take on his advice on the structural safety and renovation of the panchayat building.
Paresh Gaitonde, private engineer, in his report stated that as per the tests, all the slabs were indicating a poor compressive strength of 115 kg/cm2, which indicated that the mix used during the concreting was less than the specified grade of concrete.
“Nearly 90% of the steel reinforcement is corroded, resulting in de-lamination of the slab ceiling, which had resulted in cracking,” stated the report.
“High Chloride content much above the recommended value as per the IS Code has been detected inside the concrete, which indicated that the sand used had high salt content, which ultimately accelerated the corrosion process and ultimately corroded major part of the reinforcement,” added the report.
The report further stated that due to the corrosion factor, the load carrying capacity of the columns has degraded and the compressive strength of the columns is 117kg/cm2, which is again below the specified grade of concrete, which raises doubts about the structural safety of the building.
The technical consultant recommend that the building may be immediately vacated, as the concrete has already started to show signs of collapse and its conditions could deteriorate further during the monsoon.
Speaking to Herald, Panchayat Secretary Basilio Pires said: “I was worried about the conditions of the panchayat building and after getting a note from Tiswadi BDO, myself along with the panchayat staff decided to shift important files and documents to the panchayat hall along with our staff.”
When asked when the renovation work will start, he said the BDO along with the technical consultant and the engineer will inspect the building and later the renovation work of the building will be carried out through GSIDC.
“Till then, we will have to work from the panchayat hall,” he added.
The panchayat building, which was constructed under the Rural and Development Agency Scheme, was inaugurated on October 2, 1998, but due to poor construction and waterproofing works, there has been water leakage during the monsoons, due to which the steel inside the slab got corroded.
