The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh came to a consensus with Buet engineers on the required concrete strength of RMG factory buildings, apparently ending their dispute over the ongoing factory inspection.
The consensus emerged at meeting held in Dhaka yesterday among the technical experts from Bangladesh university of Engineering and Technology, Accord, Alliance and Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments.
As per the decision, the concrete strength of a factory building will be 2,370 pound per square inch (psi) for stone-made structure and 20,50 psi for brick-made ones.
International Labour Organisation (ILO) mediated the meeting to reach a consensus over the required concrete strength of a RMG factory building as a neutral body.
The meeting discussed some issues including core strength value for factory assessment, fact of safety (FoS) calculation, harmonising reporting formats of Accord, Alliance and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), thermographic inspection and technical differences of review panel decision.
“We have come to a consensus over the dispute of concrete strength and from now on all the parties would use the unified psi,” Sheikh Sekender Ali, Professor of Civil Engineering Department of BUET told the Dhaka Tribune.
“But we have not yet come to a consensus on core strength,” said Ali, a representative from the Buet.
He said Fact of Safety (FoS) also came to a unified stage, but making the report public has been left to the government and International Labour Orgainsation (ILO).
Earlier, the review panel stopped taking decision on apparel factories recommended either by Accord or Alliance over the dispute about concrete strength.
According to the Buet engineers, the concrete strength of a building is to be 2,270 psi for stone-made structure and 2,050 for brick-made structure while Accord considered the concrete strength should be 1,750 psi for brick-made structure.