Japanese experts prepare six manuals on earthquake resilient building

DHAKA, June 29,  (NsNewsWire) —  A Team of Japanese experts with the local engineers have prepared six separate manuals for Bangladesh that will help in constructing earthquake resistant new buildings as well as strengthening vulnerable old buildings.

The manuals were prepared under a Project titled Capacity Development of Natural Disaster Resistant techniques of Construction and Retrofitting for Public Buildings(CNCRP), implemented by Public Works Department (PWD) with technical support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The manual were presented today at a workshop at the PWD conference room at Purta Bhaban at Segunbagicha here organised by CNCRP project.

PWD Chief Engineer Md Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyan inaugurated the workshop as the chief guest while Senior Representative, JICA Bangladesh Office Hiroyuki Tomita spoke as the special guest. PWD Additional Chief Engineer Ainul Farhad presided over the inaugural session.

Under four-year CNCRP, a team of Japanese experts led by Fumio Kaneko has been transferring retrofitting technology to the engineers of PWD and other public and private organisations since 2011. Retrofitting is a technology that could be used to make a vulnerable building earthquake resistant without demolishing it.

PWD chief engineer said Bangladesh is not sufficiently prepared to reduce the risk of earthquake because 90 percent of the buildings of Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet being non-engineered due to rapid urbanization. “The government has taken a strong stand with disaster risk reduction and the PWD is entrusted with the task to promote seismic resistant building and to retrofit public buildings which are vulnerable to earthquake,” he said.

Noting that the current Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) has no provision of seismic evaluation and retrofit design, he said through out the project in last four years the PWD engineers studied seismic evaluation and retrofit design of RC buildings by Japanese method and prepared the manuals.

“Our engineers tried to assimilate the Japanese experience with local condition, local material and construction practice,” he said and urged the engineers to go through the manual during construction of jolt resistant new buildings.

Hiroyuki Tomita hoped Japanese technology and experience to make building earthquake resistance can help Bangladesh to strengthen its vulnerable buildings for avoiding any tragic incident like Rana plaza in future. He said the Japan government has decided to continue its support to make Bangladesh buildings earthquake resistant. The JICA has decided to launch the CNCRP phase-II project from September this year.  Under the CNCRP, the Japanese expert team has already retrofit Tejgaon fire station as pilot basis. The team is now working to retrofit one RMG unit in Ashulia.

The six manuals are – Seismic evaluation of existing reinforced concrete buildings, Seismic retrofit design of existing reinforced concrete buildings, Retrofit construction and supervision of reinforced concrete building, Guideline for quality control of design and construction, Seismic design of reinforced concrete building and Vulnerability assessment and damage prediction of reinforced concrete buildings against non-seismic hazards.

Former CNCRP Project Director and PWD Additional Chief Engineer M Abdul Mlek Sikder, former Deputy PD Eng M MAfizur Rahman, PWD additional Chief Engineer AHM Motiur Rahman and member of JICA expert team Akira Inoue discussed various aspects of the manuals, among others.