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[ibarua]

Re.: Collapses of buildings
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Most buildings that collapse during construction do so because of failure of formwork. Holding the designer responsible for such collapses is not fair or justified. The responsibility is primarily of the site engineer /supervisor and the contractor. Rarely is proper formwork design done for buildings. But formwork design is common in bridge works.

Collapses are failures, and all failures are human failures. Education and training are the only ways in which failure can be minimized. Yet, there are no curricula in our engineering schools and colleges -- the IITs included -- for imparting training on how to avoid failure.

A doctor can and often does cremate or bury his failures, but we engineers have to exhibit our failures for all the world to see.

This is the reason why training on avoiding failures should find a place in the curricula of our engineering colleges and institutes.

Indrajit Barua
(ibarua@deguild.com)

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