SAHC2014 – 9th International Conference on

Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions

F. Peña & M. Chávez (eds.)
Mexico City, Mexico, 14–17 October 2014

ASSESSMENT AND RESTORATION OF HERITAGE AND HISTORIC

STRUCTURES AFFECTED BY THE BHUJ, INDIA EARTHQUAKE OF
2001
Author: Satwant Rihal1, Rajni Patwa2
1
Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India
1
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.A
E-mail: [email protected]
2
Architect, Bhuj, Gujarat, India
E-mail: [email protected]

Keywords: India Heritage and Historic Structures, Masonry, Earthquake Protection, Condition
Assessment, Restoration, Preservation.

Abstract. This paper presents the results of a study of the assessment and restoration of her-
itage structures affected by the Bhuj earthquake of 2001. The paper examines the outcomes of
assessments of heritage and historic structures that were carried out following the Bhuj
earthquake not only in the epicentral area, but also in distant cities e.g. Ahmedabad and oth-
ers. The monuments included in the study are the heritage and historic structures in Bhuj in-
cluding the Ayna Mahal complex, Fuvara Mahal, and the city Gates in the old walled city.
The paper presents an analysis of the design and construction process used for the restoration
of the Gates of the old Walled City; and the Ayna Mahal complex in Bhuj. A practical assess-
ment of the structural framing system of the Ayna Mahal; and its performance during the
Bhuj earthquake is presented. The repair and restoration scheme developed by the Architect
and Engineer for the restoration of the Ayna Mahal; and historic city gates is presented. The
results presented in this paper will help focus attention on the urgently needed issues of pro-
tection, restoration and preservation of heritage structures during earthquakes not only in
Gujarat but also in other parts of India.
 Satwant Rihal

1 INTRODUCTION

The rich cultural and architectural heritage of gujarat is at risk due to effects of rapid
urbanization, aging, climatic factors and hazards such as wind storms, rains and flooding,
and earthquakes. A study of the seismological history of Gujarat provides clear evidence
of earthquake risk to heritage and historical structures in Gujarat, as well as different sec-
tors of the infrastructure of villages, towns and cities in Gujarat. The catastrophic bhuj
earthquake of 2001, was an eye opening experience for communities at large in the state
of Gujarat as well as the rest of India. Unless we learn from the experience of past disas-
ters not only in India but around the globe, and undertake efforts to restore, protect and
preserve our heritage structures; our rich and precious architectural and cultural heritage
will not survive and will be lost forever.

2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

History of the Bhuj and Kutch areas of Gujarat dates back to the Harappan civilization
(2900 -1900 B.C.), the conquest by Alexander in 325 B.C., followed by rule of Darius, in
521 B.C. - 485 B.C., further down to rule by Samudragupta’s son from 4th century A.D.,
and then down to rule by the Solanki dynasty in the 11th century, and on the way to an-
nexation by the British in 1816 and finally the merger with independent India in 1947. A
more complete historical background of Bhuj and the Kutch area of Gujarat has been pre-
sented by EERI [1]. Adjoining the area of Kutch in the south-west of the state of Gujarat
lies the region called Saurashtra which literally means “a hundred nations”, that includes
districts of Rajkot, Jamnagar, Jamnagar, Amreli, and Porbandar. This region was made up
of a number of small kingdoms with the result that this area is full of a rich cultural herit-
age and beautiful heritage structures. These heritage structures in this area suffered wide-
spread damage during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.

3 PERFORMANCE OF HERITAGE STRUCTURES DURING THE 2001 BHUJ

EARTHQUAKE
The 2001 Bhuj earthquake caused widespread devastation and damage to the rich cul-
tural and architectural heritage of Bhuj and the Kutch region of Gujarat. A Modified
Mercalli Intensity shaking map for the affected region during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake is
presented in Figure 1. A detailed study of the performance of heritage structures during
the 2001 Bhuj earthquake was reported by EERI [1], based on a detailed condition as-
sessment of heritage and historical structures carried out by INTACH [2] and EERI re-
connaissance teams. According to the detailed EERI report [1], it was reported that there
were close to 15000 heritage structures spread over 250 towns in the Kutch region, out
which 10,000 were very badly damaged or destroyed. The EERI / INTACH damage sur-
vey of heritage structures covered the districts of Kutch; Jamnagar, Junagarh and Rajkot;
and Mehsana, Surendranagar and Ahmedabad. Such a history of earthquake risk de-
mands an urgent call for ongoing action to plan for protection, restoration of heritage and
historical structures. Initial damage surveys of heritage and historical structures were car-
ried out and reported by EERI [1], INTACH [2], and UNESCO [3] and others.

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ASSESMENT AND RESTORATION OF HERITAGE AND HISTORIC STRUCTURES AFFECTED BY THE
BHUJ, INDIA EARTHQUAKE OF 2001

Figure 1: Distribution of Modified Mercalli Intensities in India and the neighboring areas for the Mw 7.6 Bhuj
earthquake. (Source: http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/hough/bhuj/bhuj-intensity.doc)

4 AINA MAHAL – PALACE OF MIRRORS

Basically this beautiful heritage structure consists of a huge two story mansion, built in
1761 A.D. by Rao Lakhpat Ji. The first floor had three main rooms - the Audience Hall,
the Ayna Mahal and apartments. The Ayna Mahal was used as pleasure palace where the
kings wrote poetry and watched performances by dancing girls for entertainment. There
are three main parts of this complex, the Fuvara Mahal, Hira Mahal and Ayna Mahal.
The Ayna Mahal and Hira Mahal are located on the first floor next to south side of the
Fuvara Mahal. The innovative designs of that time incorporated really creative approach-
es to achieve a comfortable living environment and create dazzling patterns of ambient
lighting effects through use of complex geometrical patterns of mirrors (mica pieces) in-
tegrated with the interior finishes.

4.1 STRUCTURAL SYSTEM

The floors and roofs of the Aina Mahal were originally made of composite lime concrete
overlaying 101.6 mm stone slabs supported on timber beams and columns. The thickness
of the lime concrete and stone slabs was about 304 mm. The masonry wall enclosure is

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 Satwant Rihal

constructed with Bella Stone with lime and cement mortar. Bella stone is essentially
dressed sand stone and is available in 228.6 mm x 228.6 x 457.2 mm size

5 FUVARA MAHAL (PALACE OF FOUNTAINS)

Fuvara Mahal was actually a music hall where “Vraj haveli sangeet” used to be per-
formed. This first floor hall was 15 meters square, with a central area that originally had
pools and fountains; and a 2.4 meter open walkway that wraps around the perimeter of
this hall. This open walkway is enclosed by 450 mm thick masonry exterior walls on one
side and a grid of wooden columns, on the interior side, that supports the two-way truss
framing above. The perimeter masonry walls are 3 meters above the floor level and are
capped by a roof slab 2.4 meters wide spanning the perimeter walkway.

5.1 DRAMATIC ROOF FRAMING SYSTEM

It consists of an array of interior timber columns extending about 3.2 meters above the
top of the exterior walls and the walkway roof slab, to support a timber truss system car-
rying a flat roof over the central part of the Fuvara Mahal as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Fuvara Mahal, timber truss system and clerestory

The truss configuration with vertical sides with large openings form a clerestory. This
unusual roof truss configuration appears more like a knee-brace type lateral bracing sys-
tem for the upper part of the roof structure, as there are no horizontal ties defining the
truss system, even though partial horizontal restraint is provided by the roof slabs span-
ning the perimeter walkway, acting as a perimeter ring beam. The wooden trusses use
bolted metal-strap connections, which suggests that they possibly represent repairs car-
ried out after one of the earlier earthquakes e.g. the 1819 Gujarat earthquake.

6 DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL COMFORT

The builders of these beautiful heritage buildings incorporated innovative natural means
combining evaporative cooling; pools of water and fountains, high ceilings, clerestory’s,
and cross-ventilation to achieve environmental comfort in the scorching heat of the arid
Bhuj – Kutch region of Gujarat.

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ASSESMENT AND RESTORATION OF HERITAGE AND HISTORIC STRUCTURES AFFECTED BY THE
BHUJ, INDIA EARTHQUAKE OF 2001

7 CONDITION ASESSMENT
According to the excellent detailed field survey of heritage buildings in Gujarat carried
out in 2001 under the sponsorship of INTACH, the existing condition was very well doc-
umented [4]. It was discovered that a 2.5 meter long section of the exterior masonry wall
had collapsed; the interior columns in the central part of Fuvara Mahal on the north side
were found to be tilting 5.0 – 7.5 degrees northwards (outward). It was reported that both
the north and south walls were tilting outward by about 3 degrees, in the northerly direc-
tion. Some of the timber columns had tilting of the order of 2% and the corner columns
on the structural grid were totally vertical. It was reported that one member of a truss had
buckled and slightly split, but other that no sign of structural failure was observed in the
timber framing system. Furthermore it was reported that there was significant sagging of
the roof slab over the central portion of the roof.

8 RESTORATION

8.1 Ayna Mahal

The restoration work of Ayna Mahal in Bhuj started around April 2009, eight years after
the 2001 earthquake, and took eight months to complete according to the project archi-
tect. The restoration work generally involved the bracing of the damaged and unstable
components and materials; removal of loose materials; and replacement of damaged
components. The restoration work was carried out in the following sequence:

8.1.1 Restoration of stone columns and arched corridors

The arched corridor and the stone columns on the west side of the entry steps to the
Ayna Mahal had collapsed during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Ayna Mahal, collapsed arched corridor west of entry steps, restoration in progress.

The repair work started with the restoration of these stone columns and the corridor
arches as shown in Figure 4.

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 Satwant Rihal

Figure 4: Ayna Mahal, arched corridor restoration in progress.

The distortion and damage of a typical corridor stone arch, including the numbering
of the stone pieces making up the arch, and the temporary shoring used during the res-
toration process is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Ayna Mahal, arched corridor restoration in progress. Showing distortion of corridor arch
and numbering of stones making up the arch.

The process of restoration of the corridor arch including the temporary masonry
work for shaping the corridor arches being restored, is presented in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Ayna Mahal, arched corridor restoration in progress

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ASSESMENT AND RESTORATION OF HERITAGE AND HISTORIC STRUCTURES AFFECTED BY THE
BHUJ, INDIA EARTHQUAKE OF 2001

8.2 Fuvara Mahal

It appears that one of the main causes of the observed damage and failures in this
whole complex was the effect of very heavy roofs and floors; possible amplification of
ground motions toward the upper parts of buildings resulting in very large inertial forces
that the existing lateral force resisting systems could not resist. An innovative solution to
help reduce the dead weight of the floors and roof system, was developed and imple-
mented by the project architect. It consisted of replacing the stone slabs and overlay of
thick lime concrete (total thickness of 304.8 mm); with 50.8 mm thick thermocol sheets
and topped with 30.8 mm thick IPS floor (Indian Pattern Stone) cement plaster floor fin-
ish. During this restoration process the stone slabs and the lime concrete over the wood-
en gratings and wooden planks, were removed as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Lightening of roof / floor above Fuvara Mahal clerestory by removing stone slabs and lime concrete
above the wooden grating and planks.

The preparation for the new layer of ferrocement, and thermocol sheets above the
wooden grating is as presented in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Lightening of roof / floor above Fuvara Mahal clerestory by removing stone slabs and lime concrete
above the wooden grating and planks.

This innovative solution was able to achieve a 60-70% reduction in the dead weight of
the floor / roof framing system, in the restoration process, and thus help reduce the earth-
quake forces that the structure will have to resist during future earthquakes.

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 Satwant Rihal

8.2.1 Restoration of Clerestory and wood framework

The clerestory portion of Fuvara Mahal suffered extensive damage during the 2001
Bhuj earthquake. This part of Fuvara Mahal underwent significant distortion possibly due
to torsional response, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Fuvara Mahal, distortion of clerestory portion

The restoration process of the Fuvara Mahal clerestory ceiling and replacement of
damaged wood members is as shown in Figure 10 and Figure 11

Figure 10: Fuvara Mahal Clerestory Ceiling, restoration of buckled truss members in progress.

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ASSESMENT AND RESTORATION OF HERITAGE AND HISTORIC STRUCTURES AFFECTED BY THE
BHUJ, INDIA EARTHQUAKE OF 2001

Figure 11: Fuvara Mahal Clerestory Ceiling, restoration in progress

8.2.2 Discovered arches

During the process of repair and restoration of Fuvara Mahal, beautiful arches were
discovered in the north façade of Fuvara Mahal. They were found to be embedded inside
the masonry walls. The design team decided to incorporate the beautiful decorative arch-
es as part of the finished window openings as shown in Figure 12. The restoration of the
discovered arches in progress is presented in Figure 13.

Figure 12: Fuvara Mahal, discovered arches after restoration

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 Satwant Rihal

Figure 13: Fuvara Mahal North Façade, discovered arches under restoration

8.3 Darbar Hall and Chori Mandap

The process of laying ferrocement concrete over thermocol sheets above Chori Man-
dap at second floor as presented in Figure 14. A view of Darbar hall structure and roof
after restoration is presented in Figure 15.

Figure 14: Ferrocement Concrete, overlay on thermocol sheets above Chori Mandap second floor.

Figure 15: Darbar Hall structure and roof after restoration. Chori Mandap restored roof with ferrocement overlay.

9 COST OF CONSERVATION
The total cost of the restoration of Ayna Mahal, Fuvara Mahal, Hira Mahal, Darbar
Hall and Chori Mandap was approximately Rs. 28 lakhs (one lakh=100,000). Efforts are
underway to analyze the available data to determine restoration costs on a per square me-

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ASSESMENT AND RESTORATION OF HERITAGE AND HISTORIC STRUCTURES AFFECTED BY THE
BHUJ, INDIA EARTHQUAKE OF 2001

ter basis for different types of restorations developed and implemented in the heritage
structures in Bhuj.

10 OLD CITY GATES

The walled city of Bhuj that was founded in 1510, was surrounded by the fort which
had five major gates, and 10.6 meter high walls and towers. Only small remnants of the
old fort wall are to be found in the city of Bhuj, as the rest of the fort wall has fallen off
due to the cumulative damage caused by earthquakes, urbanization and expansion of the
city over the years. During the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, the Bhid Gate, the Sarpat Gate and
Patwadi Gate, some of the beautiful symbols of the city’s rich heritage, were severely
damaged. The damage suffered by the Sarpat gate, built in 1740, is shown in Figure 16
and Figure 17.

Figure 16: Old City Sarpat Gate, damaged condition before restoration

Figure 17: Old City Sarpat Gate, condition before restoration showing displaced column and shifted arch
segments.

The damage consisted of collapse of the stone masonry work on each side of the
arched gate; and the parapet and spandrels above the arch; displacement of supporting
columns; and shifting of the gateway arch segments. This type of damage was possibly
caused by very heavy self-weight of masonry and earth-fill above the arched gates; and
amplification of ground accelerations resulting in very large seismic forces on the stone

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 Satwant Rihal

masonry arched gates. The arches in the arched gates did not collapse, but did show clear
signs of yielding, with some of the arch stones being noticeably displaced from their
normal positions as shown in Figure 17.

10.1 Structural System

The structural system for the old city gates basically consisted of four parallel stone
arches spanning approximately 3.05 meters, spaced 3.05 meters apart; with five or six
parallel arches perpendicular to the plane of the main arches spaced approximately 3.05
meters apart.

10.2 Restoration:

The general process of restoration of the historic Bhid Gate is shown in Figure 18, in-
cluding scaffolding, and false masonry work to shape and support the arched gate while
the restoration work is in progress. A view of the old city Bhid Gate after restoration is
shown in the top picture in Figure 18.

Figure 18: Old City Bhid Gate, restoration of arched gate in progress - Bottom two pictures

10.3 Cost of Restoration

The cost of the restoration of the old city gates are as follows:
Bhid Gate……..Rs.13 lakhs
Sarpat Gate….. Rs. 11 lakhs
Patwadi Gate.…Rs. 7 lakhs

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BHUJ, INDIA EARTHQUAKE OF 2001

11 CONCLUSIONS
This paper has attempted to focus attention on the status of the restoration of heritage
structures in the city of Bhuj that were severely damaged by the 2001 Bhuj, India earth-
quake. The main focus of this paper is to share the experiences from assessment and res-
toration of the Ayna Mahal complex, Fuvara Mahal, and Old City Gates in the city of
Bhuj in the state of Gujarat. Innovative local techniques using locally available materials
were developed and implemented for the restoration of these heritage structures in Bhuj,
that were devastated by the 2001 Bhuj earthquake. During the assessment process, no
detailed structural analyses were carried out for studying the earthquake resistance of the
heritage buildings in the Ayna Mahal Complex and the Old City Gates. Efforts have
now been initiated to carry out such studies to better understand the issues of lateral sta-
bility and behavior of such heritage and historic structures in Bhuj, during earthquakes.
Based on the experience of assessment and restoration of the heritage and historic struc-
tures in Bhuj, it can be concluded that the protection, restoration and preservation of the
heritage structures in Gujarat is a very important issue and global collaborative efforts
are urgently needed to protect this rich heritage from effects of aging, earthquakes, rapid
urbanization, and climate factors, among others.

REFERENCES
[1] EERI, “Heritage Structures” - Bhuj, India Earthquake of January 26, 2001, Earth-
quake Engineering Research Institute, Oakland, California
[2] INTACH, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, New Delhi 2001
[3] UNESCO Mission to Gujarat, India for the Conservation of Earthquake-Damaged
Cultural Properties, March 2001(http://www.conservationtech.com/india-
UNESCO/UNESCO-report.htm)
[4] Booth, Edmund, and Vadavada, Rabindra., Earthquake of January 26, 2001 and its
affects on Architectural Heritage of Kutch & Saurashtra, Prepared for INTACH, New
Delhi, May 2001

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