Seismic retrofitting support to be made avis for vulnerable homes

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, September 29, 2026

The Tripura government is working to make trained manpower and appropriate technology accessible to individual house owners to assess and strengthen structures vulnerable to earthquakes, a senior Revenue Department official said on Sunday.

Revenue Department Secretary Dr Milind Ramteke said the initiative would initially focus on building the capacity of engineers, agencies and planners in seismic retrofitting and related technologies.

“The trained manpower and technology shall be made available to individual household owners for assessment of vulnerability of the structure and individual retrofitting at affordable costs,” he said.

Dr Ramteke made the remarks while addressing a workshop on “Training and Capacity Building Programme for Individual Housing Seismic Retrofitting” at Pragna Bhavan in Agartala.

He said many newer buildings were constructed with reinforced cement concrete (RCC), but older structures were built using different materials and construction methods. He also pointed out that provisions for individual retrofitting were incorporated into the municipal law through an amendment in 2015.

“Seismic retrofitting is a task that requires good funds,” Dr Ramteke said.

Highlighting the importance of strengthening vulnerable houses, he said earthquakes could result in significant casualties if adequate preventive measures were not taken.

“Most of the time people stay in their homes and in the case of any eventuality like an earthquake strike with vulnerable household structures, massive loss of life could have occurred,” he said, adding that property damage could be compensated but loss of life was irreversible.

According to data cited by Dr Ramteke, about 44 per cent of households in Tripura have mud walls, while around 30 per cent have brick-wall structures. The remaining houses are made of bamboo.

He said bamboo structures were flexible and therefore less likely to be affected by an earthquake.

Dr Ramteke also stressed the need to improve public preparedness for earthquakes, noting that the state was more accustomed to disasters such as cyclones, storms and flash floods.

“Earthquakes are different from that and may deal a higher degree of devastation,” he said.

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