According to estimates by the Civil Engineering Department of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), there are 2.1 million buildings in Dhaka. Of those, 600,000 buildings are of six storeys or above.
During an earthquake, about 90 percent of the deaths are due to building collapse. After the Nepal earthquake in 2015, BUET proposed to identify buildings exposed to earthquakes in Dhaka.
In this process, high risk buildings were to be marked with red color and medium risk buildings with green color. But despite several rounds of discussion, the proposal did not gain momentum.
Following the devastating earthquake in Turkey, the Capital Upgrade Kartipakkaha (Rajuk) held a meeting on 22 March to identify vulnerable buildings. The final report was to be given next month, but it did not happen.
Rajuk chairman Anisur Rahman Mia said, “We had a meeting on the earthquake last Thursday. We had previously identified 3,500 buildings at risk of earthquakes in Dhaka as part of a project. However, it was difficult for us alone to survey all the buildings.” Impossible.” Dhaka city. Hence, we will conduct the survey through a third party and take necessary measures in this regard.”