The Ministry for Science and Technology has drawn up a plan for seismic micro-zoning 36 Indian cities located on highly seismic Zones V and IV.

This includes the national capital New Delhi.

Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal on Friday said that because of lack of data on local seismic activities in those urban areas falling in seismic zones V and IV, construction activities so far done in those cities couldn't be termed very safe in the event of incidence of mega earthquakes.

In this regard, he cited examples of the Ahmedabad earthquake that precipitated in collapse of buildings like ninepins.

Sibal said the seismological study will guide future urban planning in those areas taking disaster mitigation into account.

He said technology and expertise were available in the country for carrying out the exercise of densely populated cities in the country and the ministry will encourage public-private partnership in these projects that were not very expensive.

Sibal also released the report on Seismic Microzonation of Guwahati Region that falls in highly seismic Zone V of the country. The report was prepared under a project sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology through multi-agencies participation.

The report on seismic microzonation of Guwahati region is an outcome of four-year long efforts of team of experts pooled from IIT Kharagpur, IIT, Roorkie, IIT, Guwahati, Geological Survey of India, Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat.

The DST, in response to a request from the Assam government initiated the project in the year 2002 by constituting a national level expert committee. The areas of investigation included geology, geomorphology, bed rock profile, landslide hazard, seismicity, seismotectonics, land use distribution, site response, geotechnical studies involving 200 boreholes, strong motion acceleration analysis and synthesis, site classification and demographic distribution.

There have been concerns over the haphazard growth of Guwahati during the last decade or so while the urbanisation strategy has remained virtually blind to the tectonic instability of the area because of its location in a highly seismic region of the world.