Concerned at the frequent incidents of earthquakes and fires, the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) is set to launch a massive campaign next year to identify and dismantle the risky residential and commercial buildings of Dhaka constructed more than 20 years ago.
This step can save the lives of thousands of people and prevent massive financial losses.
Under a long-term plan, Rajuk is going to expand its jurisdiction beyond Dhaka city to cover the newly-built housing estates where unplanned construction of establishments is going on.
Urban planners and disaster experts have warned that hundreds of thousands of faulty buildings can be destroyed if a strong earthquake hits the capital. Experts say that a building can be made earthquake-resistant if only 20% of the total construction cost is spent on safety measures. However, many are not doing it in order to save money.
Prof Mehedi Ahmed Ansary of the Department of Civil Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) said that although the government is strengthening the Fire Service and other capacity-building measures, it still does not give much importance to building calamity-resistant buildings in Dhaka.
“Rajuk is responsible for supervising these. They must take steps to monitor those who are constructing buildings and give special importance to the construction of earthquake-resistant buildings when granting permission,” he told Dhaka Tribune.
Alerted but neglected
The government was alerted about a catastrophe in 2009 after a UNDP-funded survey revealed shocking results: around 250,000 buildings in Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet are extremely vulnerable to earthquakes. In Dhaka alone, 78,000 out of 326,000 buildings were detected as risky.
Through the survey, conducted from February 2008 to August 2009, a database of all the buildings and maps of roads, electricity, water, and gas pipelines was prepared to assess possible damage that could occur during an earthquake.
The active fault studies under the survey revealed five different segments as potential sources of earthquakes in the future. Sylhet, for the Dauki fault, and Chittagong, for the Plate Boundary faults 1, 2, and 3 in the Bay, are among the most vulnerable cities. Dhaka is vulnerable, mainly because of its high-density population and high-rise concrete structures, to the Madhupur blind fault.
The survey results triggered concerns among the public as well as government agencies. Later, different departments took steps to identify the most vulnerable government structures and conducted retrofitting as immediate measures to increase longevity.
Later, in 2019, Housing and Public Works Minister SM Rejaul Karim told the Parliament that 66% of buildings in the capital were constructed in violation of the Building Code.
He made the statement based on a survey that Rajuk had conducted on 204,000 buildings between January and July 2018. The study found that around 131,000 out of 195,000 completed buildings were built flouting the Building Code.
Besides, out of 8,730 under-construction buildings, 3,342 were found defying the designs approved by Rajuk. Of those buildings, Rajuk was supposed to send notices to the owners of 1,818 multi-storey buildings. But no visible progress has been made since then.
Mobile courts
When contacted, Rajuk officials told Dhaka Tribune that they had carried out 1,765 mobile courts in the last fiscal year ending in June 2023 to identify the buildings that were built defying the Bangladesh National Building Code 2020. Most of the structures covered under the mobile courts are government schools.
Officials said they are working to make a list of buildings after verifying the capacity and fire safety measures and assessing earthquake resilience under the World Bank-funded Urban Resilience Project.
Project Director Abdul Latif Helali told Dhaka Tribune: “So far, we have completed monitoring 3,052 of 20,000 government schools, colleges and hospitals in Dhaka. Of these, 42 institutions need to be demolished and 187 need to be repaired.”
Special actions
The city authorities will form a special team of experts, comprising Rajuk inspectors, professors of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), and urban planners, to implement the plan.
The team will also scrutinize whether the designs of new buildings approved in the last five years were followed properly during construction.
Rajuk Chairman Md Anisur Rahman Miah said the experts’ committee will visit the risky structures and suggest the next course of action. Some buildings may need to be demolished, while others can be protected by retrofitting.
“They will identify the loopholes and make a list of faulty buildings. After that, the defects will be fixed by appointing a Rajuk-authorised engineer.”
On the other hand, prior to new construction or reconstruction, building owners must secure design approval from authorised engineers and consultants through following Rajuk guidelines.
Rajuk has already developed software to implement these activities easily. The software came into full operation on November 18, Anisur Rahman said. There are more than 200 listed structural architects and electrical engineers. The construction company will select the engineers and hire them.
“We will confirm the approval of a building upon the consent of the engineer concerned. After that, if there is any kind of problem, the engineer will have to take on all responsibilities. Even then, if anyone constructs a building without Rajuk's approval, we will demolish it.
“We are giving more importance to earthquake and fire safety issues.”
Rajuk is also ready to provide the necessary service to check whether a structure is earthquake-resistant. “We will help them with equipment. Recently, we reconstructed a building damaged by fire in Siddiq Bazar in the capital at a cost of about Tk8-9 lakh,” the Rajuk chairman said, adding that Rajuk was taking initiatives for advertisements and different kinds of awareness campaigns.
