LDA Plaza: Top floors likely to be razed

Engineers continue assessment of structural integrity.

LAHORE:

The ninth floor of the LDA Plaza has been declared unusable by an assessment committee of engineering experts, which is expected to give the same verdict for the seventh and eighth floors.

The Plaza, which is the headquarters of the Lahore Development Authority, was ravaged by a fire that took 36 hours to put out last week. At least 25 people were killed in the blaze.

The assessment committee has conducted around a dozen tests on the nine-storey building on Egerton Road to evaluate its structural integrity. Testing on the ninth floor revealed that the structure was “very weak and volatile”, said LDA officials. Based on the tests, LDA officials have started removing mobile phone company boosters installed on the roof of the building. One side of Egerton Road was blocked all day on Saturday as cranes were used to bring down the boosters, once they had been disassembled.

LDA Chief Engineer Israr Saeed, who is a part of the assessment committee, said that the ninth floor of the building would be demolished as it was unusable. He said that reports on the eighth and seventh floor, which is where the fire originated, were expected on Monday.

“These storeys don’t look good, according to the initial reports,” he said.

Saeed added that the demolition operation would begin once the entire building had been assessed.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2013.