A TEAM of earthquake specialists is flying out from the north west to the devastated Indian state of Gujarat to offer engineering advice and an action plan in the hope it is ready when the next disaster strikes.

One year on from the tragic events of January 2001, Manchester-based Babtie Group has been chosen by the Asian Development Bank to put in place both a disaster management plan and to provide specialist training on how to build structures capable of withstanding earthquakes.

A team of 12 has been assigned to the £1m contract under expert Allan Mann, who is divisional director at Babtie and also lectures on the MSc course at UMIST on civil engineering and earthquake protection.

Babtie won the two-year contract as part of the rebuilding process after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake œ the strongest to hit the subcontinent in 50 years. More than 25,000 people died as 100 multi-storey buildings and thousands of houses collapsed.

Babtie, which employs more than 250 people in Sale, will devise disaster management strategies on what to do in the event of the next earthquake, drought or cyclone.

Homes advice

It will also work with the Indian people on how to build structures - such as homes, tall buildings, bridges and reservoirs - so they can survive earthquakes.

"We know earthquakes will happen in future, that's absolutely certain," says Mr Mann, who flies to Gujarat again next month.

"There are earthquakes in this region every so often and historical records show there has been major devastation every 50 years or so.

"The problem for the world as a whole is not that earthquakes are happening more frequently, it's that centres of populations are getting bigger and so regions are more densely populated and societies are more complicated.

"If you take the one that happened in Japan, it affected us here because it affected their economy and therefore affected our pension funds.

Education

"Gujarat is going to expect another earthquake but the problem is to educate engineers and designers on how they can provide structures and life support systems - and by that I mean dams, water supplies and power stations œ so that they will not be destroyed or damaged in an earthquake."

Advice and training will be given to government officials, administrators, developers, local engineers and builders œ all of who can start to change the whole infrastructure of the region to protect it for the future.

The project will also include consultation on the syllabus content of undergraduate engineering courses to ensure that earthquake issues are fully covered.

The process, though, is likely to be a slow one. Allan says: "It can be done. There has been a huge amount of work over the last 50 to 60 years on how earthquakes affect building structures and how to design them to withstand the tremors.

"But there is a huge problem in that you have whole cities: how do you go back and spend money on cities whose structures already exist?

"You have to have a long-term programme of educating designers, builders and civil engineers in the techniques to use."

The other problem for Gujarat, he says, is its poverty. People cannot afford expensive homes so any safety designs need to have cost in mind.

"Most people are killed in their own homes which are built by local people," says Allan. "How do you devise rules that are affordable and you can convey to people who build their own houses? How do you provide certain standards of construction that will minimise the risk to those people?

"It's not sophisticated engineering, but there is a great deal to do."

Babtie, which has an office in Gujarat's largest city, Ahmedebad, won the contract against stiff competition. It already has a track record of winning high-profile seismic contracts, including designing the world's first hazard-resistant nuclear submarine docking cradle for the Ministry of Defence.

Allan said of the Gujarat contract: "It is good to be involved in such a valuable project that will enable a community to potentially save many lives."

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