Today's quake was 19th this year in India

Today's earthquake that shook the capital and certain areas in its neighbouring states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh was the 19th tremor in the country this year so far and third in the past five days.

The tremor, measuring 4.9 on the Richter Scale with Haryana's Bahadurgarh as epicentre, shook Delhi and neighbouring towns at 1:11 pm.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, this was the 19th quake in the country this year so far and third this month alone.

In January this year, there were 10 tremors which were recorded in various parts of India. Six quakes measuring between 5.0 to 3.6 on the Richter scale were felt in February.

Last year, there were 80 earthquakes in India, which measured between 3.5 to 6.5 on the Richter scale. A majority of these quakes occurred in the northern Indian regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Harayana and Punjab.

"India has always been a zone which experiences a lot of seismic activities since ancient times. We are continously doing research in the seismology department," RS Dattatrayam, a scientist with IMD's Seismic Department, told PTI.

"Delhi will continue to experience these quakes and termors as it falls on the junctures of faults and ridges," said Dattatrayam.

According to the Seismic Zone Mapping done by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), Delhi is among 30 cities in the country falling in zone IV, which is defined as a severe intensity seismic zone.

This is the third tremor in Delhi, which is among the 30 cities which fall in the high risk seismic zone, since September last year.

Tremors were felt in the capital on September 18 last year following an earthquake with an intensity of 6.8 on the Richter Scale having its epicentre near Sikkim-Nepal border.

On September eight last year, an earthquake of 4.2 on Richter Scale with Haryana's Sonepat as epicentre, had rocked the capital.

With Delhi falling in high risk zone with regard to quakes, the IMD has embarked on the micro-analysis of the risks faced by different parts of Delhi in the eventuality of a major tremor.

The zone-wise risk assessment of the impact of a quake on Delhi, among 30 Indian cities in the severe intensity seismic zone, is on in full steam and is expected to be completed by April.

Microzonation, as it is called, is carried out with the purpose of identifying separate individual areas that are found to have different potentials for hazardous earthquake effects.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has already asked MCD to conduct a survey to ascertain the number of unsafe buildings in the city and take steps to strengthen them, so that the damage can be minimised in case of an earthquake.

The NDMA has also come up with a training programme in Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) for MCD engineers which will enable them to assess how safe any building in the city would be during tremors or aftershocks.

In certain areas, there are a number of unsafe buildings which can be damaged in case of earthquake. This training will help the engineers to assess these buildings, and the owners will have to follow the guidelines laid down by the NDMA to build safer structures.