Question : SEISMIC HAZARD RISK MAPPING

(a) the existing facilities for monitoring and mapping seismic activity and management of earthquake related data and sharing it with all the stakeholders in the country;

(b) whether the Government proposes to assign seismic hazard risk mapping work at micro level to the Geological Survey of India (GSI);

(c) if so, the details thereof including the zones likely to be covered and the reasons for assigning the task to GSI;

(d) whether any time-frame has been set for this purpose and if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the other steps taken by the Government to identify earthquake prone areas by effectively monitoring seismic related activities?

MINISTER FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES (Independent Charge)(DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE LOK SABHA IN REPLY (a) to (e) TO STARRED QUESTION NO. 414 REGARDING “SEISMIC HAZARD RISK MAPPING” TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 06, 2014

(a) Centre for Seismology (CS) of this Ministry operates a country wide national network of seismological stations to detect and locate earthquakes occurring in and around the country in real time on 24X7 basis. The network consists of state-of-art digital broadband seismographs (BBS), VSAT based communication systems and latest tools for generation of earthquake characteristics and dissemination of earthquake information to the user agencies in least possible time. The earthquake catalogue and waveforms data is archived in a structured manner for further use by research groups and other stakeholders.

(b)-(d) GSI has completed seismic microzonation mapping of 30 cities namely, Jammu, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Chandigrh, Panchkula, Dehradun, Delhi, Bhavnagar, Surat, Jamnagar, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Bharuch, Pune, Mumbai, Jabalpur, Thrisur, Chennai, Thiruchirapalli, Puducherry, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Siliguri, Patna, Agartala, Aizawl, Gangtok, Guwahati, Jorhar and Shillong. GSI has also initiated seismic mircozonation mapping studies in Darbhanga, Srinagar, Kohima, Greater Baroda, Satara-Koyna-Warna, Kochin-Ernakulam cities. The cities are selected based on their categorized seismic zones and population. Most of these activities shall be completed by 2015-16.

(e) The earthquake monitoring network of digital BBS and Global Positioning System (GPS) Stations is regularly augmented based on the scientific need based assessment. In addition, seismic micro-zonation studies for each of the 30 selected urban center’s shall be carried out by CS based on the manual prepared by this Ministry through assigning various components of work involving available local professional groups/institutions combined with authentication and validation of the results by a duly constituted steering/oversight mechanism. An allocation of Rs. 90.0crores is made for these activities during the XII plan.