An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 struck 122 km north-northwest of Rajkot, Gujarat on Sunday evening. As announced by National Center for Seismology (NCS), the tremors were felt at 8:13 pm today.

After a review, the national agency has ascertained that magnitude of the earthquake was 5.5 on the Richter scale. According to the initial reports, the epicentre was near Bhachau in Kutch district.

Meanwhile, NCS also informed about an earthquake felt in Jammu Kashmir. As reported by news agency ANI, the tremors of magnitude 3.0 struck 90 km east of Katra, Jammu and Kashmir at 8:35 pm today.

Earlier this week, Director of the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) held a high-level meeting to discuss the frequent occurring of earthquakes in northern Indian states, especially Delhi and NCR. Post review session, the NCS requested the states to undertake public awareness programmes regarding ‘dos and don’ts’ during an earthquake to ensure the safety of the people.

The National Disaster Management Authority requested the state governments to take steps that included ensuring compliance of building bye-laws to make upcoming construction earthquake resilient and avoid the addition of vulnerable building stock.
It suggested them to identify the vulnerable structures, especially lifeline buildings, and retrofit them. Private buildings should also be retrofitted in a phased manner.

This came after Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and some other regions in Northern India recorded several low to medium intensity earthquakes over past 50 days. With nearly 14 earthquakes in 2 months, jolting the Delhi NCR regions, there have been apprehensions if it is a prelude to a big temblor, but experts say there is nothing unusual in this seismic activity.