A systematic retrofitting work to make Tejgaon Fire Station building an earthquake resistant one has started for the first time in the country.
Retrofitting is a technology that could be used to make a vulnerable building earthquake resistant without demolishing it and usually it costs 30 to 40 percent of the new construction cost of the targeted building.
Local engineers with support from Japanese experts have started working to retrofit the fire station to turn the important public building into an earthquake resistant structure within a few months.
The initiative was taken under ‘The project for Capacity Development on Natural Disaster Resistant Techniques of Construction and Retrofitting for Public Buildings (CNCRP)’. Public Works Department
(PWD) will implement it with technical support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
“Japan, one of the most tremor-prone countries, is the master of using retrofitting technology, and considering the vulnerability of Bangladesh to earthquake, retrofitting technology is being
transferred from Japan to Bangladesh under CNCRP project,” Additional Chief Engineer, PWD and Project Director of CNCRP Abdul Malek Sikder said.
In the context of Dhaka where many of the buildings are vulnerable to earthquake, Sikder said the retrofitting technology is a technique to make the capital earthquake resistant.
The fire stations and hospitals are the most important in any kinds of disaster management, and those must be kept functional for conducting post-disaster rescue operations, he added.
In the last three years under the four-year CNCRP project (from 2011to 2015), local engineers have imparted training on varioustechniques of retrofitting technology from a team of JICA experts.
As the project is in its last year, the Japanese experts and PWD engineers have decided to retrofit the Tejgaon fire station to set an example, according to a JICA press release.
The project has chosen a vulnerable fire station to be retrofitted on pilot basis. After the project, the PWD is planning to take a project to retrofit more of such vulnerable public buildings in Dhaka.