A powerful 5.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Bangladesh on Friday morning has once again exposed the dangerous fragility of Dhaka, one of the world’s most densely populated megacities.
Official figures show that at least ten people died and more than 300 were injured across Dhaka, Narayanganj and Narsingdi as buildings cracked, tilted and in some cases partially collapsed.
Seismologists and urban planners warn that the tremor may be a precursor to a far more destructive event, given Bangladesh’s position on three active tectonic plate boundaries.
While the quake was a natural event, experts insist the scale of risk facing Dhaka is largely man-made.
For years, engineers and urban governance specialists have pointed to corruption, regulatory negligence and political interference within Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), the capital’s urban development authority, as primary drivers of widespread structural vulnerability.
Friday’s quake laid bare those systemic failures.
According to the US Geological Survey, the epicenter was located near Madhabdi in Narsingdi, only 25 kilometres from the capital, and tremors were felt by more than 70 million people.
In Dhaka alone, over ten million residents experienced intense shaking that triggered panic evacuations from apartments, hospitals and high-rise office buildings.
Residents recounted terrifying moments as buildings swayed.
“Even sitting in a salon, I felt the floor vibrate like a wave. We rushed outside fearing the building might collapse,” said Shaibur Rahman of Niketan.
“This city isn’t prepared for an earthquake. It’s a miracle we’re still standing.”
His fear echoes what engineers have warned for decades: Dhaka’s physical growth has far outpaced the city’s regulatory capacity.
Rajuk’s Building Construction Act, the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) and the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) all mandate strict safety requirements, including soil tests, set-back distances, structural load calculations and certified construction materials.
Yet officials privately acknowledge that these rules are routinely ignored.
A senior Rajuk engineer, requesting anonymity, said engineering merit has taken a backseat to negotiation.
“Approvals are no longer based on compliance. It has become a bidding process. Corruption determines how fast files move,” he said.
Urban development experts estimate that about 70% of Dhaka’s buildings violate at least one major safety rule.
In many cases, structures approved for a certain height are later extended illegally with additional floors, while foundation designs are altered to cut costs.
The result, experts warn, is a sprawling metropolis filled with structurally compromised buildings incapable of withstanding even moderate seismic activity.
Developers openly describe the unofficial brokerage networks within Rajuk that expedite permits or remove unfavorable inspection notes in exchange for payments.
“Even with perfect paperwork, files don’t move without middlemen,” said property developer Jahangir Alam.
“Without paying commission it can take months. With the right people, it’s done in a week.”
A Rajuk-World Bank Urban Resilience Project released in 2024 estimated that a 6.9-magnitude earthquake could flatten 864,000 buildings in Dhaka and kill between 220,000 and 320,000 people, depending on the time of day.
The study warned that nearly 40% of the city’s structures would be beyond repair.
A separate Buet assessment in 2023 found that 60% of Dhaka’s high-rise buildings could suffer severe structural damage in a quake of just 5.5 to 6.0 magnitude.
Buet seismologist Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansary said the quality of construction materials and the disregard for soil and load-bearing studies are cause for grave concern.
“Poor quality rods, weak concrete, ignored soil reports and unverified load designs, these are the real foundations of most of our buildings,” he said.
“Dhaka is now fully within a red seismic risk zone. Every unregulated tower adds to the city’s vulnerability.”
Analysts describe Rajuk’s approval process as operating at “dual speeds,” with influential developers benefiting from fast-tracked approvals, while ordinary homeowners face delays, bureaucratic hurdles and demands for bribes.
Several officials admit that political pressure frequently overrides technical recommendations.
Buildings flagged for violations are often approved later under “special consideration.”
This dynamic has created a system where political influence, commercial interest and bureaucratic complicity collide, leaving public safety dangerously compromised.
Dhaka’s history of urban disasters underscores the consequences of these failures.
The Nimtoli fire in 2010 and the FR Tower blaze in 2019 exposed the same patterns of regulatory neglect.
“Every disaster gives us a chance to reform, but Rajuk never learns,” said urban expert Akter Mahmud of Jahangirnagar University.
“They investigate, they report, and then they forget. Meanwhile, thousands more unsafe buildings rise every year.”
Geologists have also warned that reclaimed wetlands across Bashundhara, Aftabnagar, Uttara Extension and eastern fringe zones face severe liquefaction risks.
Experts have mapped Dhaka’s seismic risk zones, identifying Old Dhaka, Aftabnagar, Badda, Rampura, and Bashundhara as areas of extreme risk (Red Zone).
Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, and Uttara fall under the high-risk category (Orange Zone), while Tongi, Savar, and parts of Purbachal are classified as moderate risk (Yellow Zone).
During a major earthquake, the loose soil in these areas could behave like liquid, causing entire structures to tilt, sink or collapse.
USGS estimates show that the recent tremor was felt by more than 100 million people, the strongest near-Dhaka quake since 1984, when a 6.0-magnitude event killed 20 people.
The Ramganj quake in 2023, measuring 5.5, caused minimal damage because of its distance from Dhaka.
This time, proximity was the defining factor.
Experts argue that Dhaka still can avert catastrophic loss of life, but only if immediate reforms begin within Rajuk and other oversight bodies.
They call for digitalizing approval processes to limit human interference, cracking down on middlemen, enforcing the BNBC across all zones, establishing independent oversight of Rajuk’s activities, retrofitting high-risk buildings and depoliticizing key appointments.
Bangladesh now stands at a crossroads.
The choice, experts say, is between structural reform and structural collapse.
As Professor Ansary put it starkly: “It’s not the earthquake that kills people. It’s corruption, negligence and weak buildings that do.”
