Foundation Failure of the St. Thomas Church, New Delhi

The St. Thomas Church was built in 1933 in New Delhi. By oversight it was founded on a graveyard having graves at two levels. The comparatively heavy rains of 1958 and 1964 showed wide spread damage by differential settlement and tilting of tower. During the investigations in 1959 by the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, the earlier history of the site and church was examined. It was found that excessive damage had occurred in 1943 also and underpinning of foundations and buttressing of walls was done to arrest it. Collapse of graves below the foundations was the reason for damage which reoccurred, mainly in the portions which were not underpinned or partially underpinned. Effectiveness and feasibility of remedial measures vis-a-vis the soil investigations are discussed