Briefing newsmen at the display ceremony of the model house here on Tuesday, Gandhara Consultants Managing Director Shahid Mohammad Khan said that the technology used in the structure is familiar to the people of northern Pakistan. He said it is easy to transport at high altitudes.
Shahid Mehmood said CGS-insulated sheet has been used as permanent roof, while steel frame with canvas walls have been used as an immediate shelter. The families can easily erect wall from the debris of their fallen old house in self-help basis to convert it into a permanent house, the architect said.
These houses will be fire proof and resistant to an earthquake up to 8 magnitude on the Richter scale, he said, adding that to curtail use of wood and to save precious forest reserves of the country the rusting resistant steel material was used in its construction. Our welfare organisation has donated as many as 20 houses under "rural housing project for earthquake victims" for remote village Moolia in district Muzaffarabad.
The houses, he said, would be erected immediately after Eid. He said the idea is not only cheap, but would serve the purpose for long-term instead of tents, which cannot bear the harsh winter weather. Such houses, he said, could be installed very quickly by a few individuals after getting preliminary training as each house takes only two hours to be assembled at the site.
Shahid Khan who visited the quake-hit areas said that he thought the idea as best solution for the rehabilitation of homeless people by providing them alternative shelter at their localities so that they could remain intact with their social structure of village neighbourhood.
He said he was ready to work voluntarily with the help of students of University of Engineering Taxila and Lahore and other volunteers. To a question, he said, such houses could be manufactured in huge quantity, as the raw material is easily available in the country.
Shahid told newsmen that he has designed some other structures for hilly areas, which would cost more, but it would have all necessary amenities of life. He said sanitary and electricity facilities have been built in all these structures and they can have multiple applications like hospitals, clinics and residences.
The architect said he would mobilise a fund raising campaign to donate maximum houses to homeless quake victims and was also seeking co-ordination of other NGOs to work together.