SEANep Current Events

Field Visit Report

Collapse of Truss Roof at Manipal Medical College, Pokhara

Incidence

The entire steel truss roof of the main building of Manipal Medical College in Pokhara over the waiting lounge suddenly collapsed on October 20, 2005 Thursday at around 2.15 PM killing ten persons and injuring 9 persons, some of them seriously. The fatalities could have been disastrous had there been a larger crowd as usual. Because of timing and rainy weather condition fewer people were present at the site during the time of the accident.
The catastrophic structural failure of the roof of one of the premier medical colleges has drawn widespread concern and attention. We engineers should have been naturally at the forefront basically on why such an unexpected failure after five years of construction occurred technically. Nepal Engineers Association (NEA) and Nepal Structural Engineers Association, Nepal (SEANep) urgently felt their social as well as professional responsibilities to address causes of the failure promptly.