Turkey's building contractors to face tough regulations after 2012

A senior official of Turkey's Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning said on Tuesday that it will enforce new regulations on construction to ensure buildings do not easily collapse in the event of earthquakes. In an earthquake measuring 7.2 on Richter scale that shook Turkey's eastern province of Van on Oct. 23, 601 people were killed and 4,152 wounded. In an interview with local newspaper Today's Zaman, Environment and Urban Planning Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Mucahit Demirtas said that as of January 2012, building contractors will be issued special ID numbers and every project carried out will be tracked by the ministry. Under this new regulation, contractors will be banned from working in construction if their practices are identified as not up to the standard, which will then be recorded in a government database to prevent that contractor from receiving a construction permit at any administrative district in the country. Audit companies will also keep track of construction projects and when ministry inspectors find fault in their work, such companies will be fined accordingly. The ministry expects audit companies to carry out acceptable assessments of building work if they face large fines for not doing so. "As the building work carried out by contractors is going to be tracked, any faults with construction will be recorded by the audit companies. Until the fault is amended, the record will remain and the constructor will not be permitted to do any construction work. The records will be kept in the Finance Ministry and the Environment and Urban Planning Ministry's databases," said Demirtas. He added that not just anyone will be permitted to work in construction and those who want to work as a construction worker will need to get a certificate from a vocational school. According to preliminary reports of Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD), in the latest earthquake, 5,497 households were severely damaged, while 9,060 suffered minor damages in Ercis town of Van.