GUWAHATI, July 3 - PK Sharma, president, AREIDA and co-chairman of the Indian Green Building Council, Guwahati Chapter, has welcomed the decision of the GDD Minister, to convert the old jail complex in Fancy Bazaar to a botanical garden.
Besides providing lungs to the old city centre, this praiseworthy step would also be a life-saving measure in the event of a natural calamity like an earthquake, stated a release issued this evening.
�The Fancy Bazar area is not only congested but also has a large building stock built before the earthquake code IS 1893 was notified in 1962 and as such the earthquake performance of some of the pre-1962 buildings cannot be predicted. The original decision to build a shopping complex in such a congested area was indeed unfortunate, as the then authorities had only commercial interests in mind rather than public welfare. We wonder as to why the current Chairman of GMDA, who has been so vociferous in such matters, was a party to this anti-people decision. Such a large plot of land in this chocked area of the city is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the authorities to do something unique for the benefit of the city. We hail this decision of the government,� he added.
