Experts at Ctg symposium call for urgent plan for earthquake disaster

Experts at Ctg symposium call for urgent plan for earthquake disaster

Photo: BSS

Chattogram, December 03, 2025 (BSS) – Experts at a seminar held here yesterday realized the catastrophic impacts on the country's economy coupled with the unpredictable human toll without a practical, comprehensive and timely preparedness plan to mitigate and recover from future earthquake disaster.

Terming the recent recurring tremors as an SOS signal for a possible higher magnitude earthquake in the future, they opined that all the major industrial and economic installations (KPIs) on both banks of the Karnaphuli River including Chattogram Port, CEPZ, KEPZ, Ctg Airport, Elevated Expressway, Submarine Cable Network, Karnaphuli Tunnel, power and fuel supply facilities including Eastern Refinery, and infrastructure associated with Cox's Bazar beach area are under construction. The Matarbari Deep Sea Port is at high risk of a larger scale earthquake.

The Institute of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB), Chattogram Center and Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) jointly organized a seminar on “Earthquake Hazards in Bangladesh: Its Implications on National Economy” at IEB Center under the chairmanship of Engineer Manzar Khurshid Alam.

The speakers also suggested that the authority develop an earthquake mitigation and preparedness plan as a national priority, taking into account geographical risk factors in addition to routine testing of all buildings and infrastructure, which could reduce the damage to a large extent.

Eminent seismologist and former VC of Chattogram University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) Prof Dr Muhammad Jehangir Alam presented the keynote paper of the symposium. CDA Chairman Eng. Noorul Karim, former CUET VC Professor Prof. Muzammil Haque, Bangladesh Society of Engineers Section President Eng. Saleem Md. Jain Alam and IEB, Chattogram Center Secretary Eng. Khan Muhammad Aminur Rahman, among others, participated in the discussion. Nearly four lakh buildings in 41 wards of Chattogram City Corporation, almost all school buildings and public and private healthcare facilities are highly vulnerable, Professor Dr Jehangir Alam said in the lead paper. “Because the area has not experienced any significant seismic activity in the past 50 years, unlimited development has resulted in little seismic resilience,” he said. He said that identifying buildings and infrastructure vulnerable to high earthquakes is crucial for a reliable estimate of losses caused by any earthquake.

Prof. Dr. Jahangir said that a large number of old buildings along with new buildings being constructed without following the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC)-2020 in areas of 1,528 square kilometers in Dhaka Metropolis with a population of 16 million, are at high risk of economic and human losses during a high-intensity earthquake. This problem should be addressed urgently before time runs out.

He said that it is extremely necessary to take natural disaster-resistant and resilient measures in the design and construction of Matarbari Deep Port, which can be treated as the future transshipment hub of Bangladesh's “Little Singapore” to protect the giant facility from any natural disasters such as earthquake, tsunami and tidal surge. Professor Jahangir Alam said that steps should be taken to translate all volumes of BNBC-2020 from English to Bangla and hurriedly publish the guidelines and distribute them to all stakeholders and policy makers for their proper implementation so that earthquake compliance guidelines are supervised before and after approval of infrastructures. “We have a huge workforce in a multi-sector engineering specialty that can contribute to the earthquake mitigation and supervision process if the initiative is taken to utilize their talents with the effective use of artificial intelligence,” he said. He focused on creating awareness among people rather than spreading panic and portraying a depressing image and called for multinational cooperation to mitigate and reduce earthquake-related damage.

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