Dhaka: Local engineers with the help of Japanese experts have accomplished the retrofitting of a faulty readymade garment (RMG) building in Ashulia to turn it earthquake resistant.

Retrofitting is a technology that could be used to make a vulnerable building earthquake resistant without demolishing it and usually it costs 30 to 40 per cent of the new construction cost of the targeted building.

After the incident of Rana Plaza, the Japanese government through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)  initiated a project, titled ‘RMG Sector Safe Environment Project’ and created a Tk 100crore fund with the Bangladesh Bank for financing the RMG owners to make their building safe for the workers, said a JICA press release on Sunday.

A total of 300 RMG factories applied JICA for assessing their factories, of which 214 were selected for the assessment by another JICA project, titled ‘Capacity Development on Natural Disaster Resistant Techniques of Construction and Retrofitting for Public Buildings (CNCRP)’, implemented by the Public Works Department (PWD).

The CNCRP project took the initiative to retrofit DK Knitwear Ltd., a sister concern of DK Group, by providing soft loan of US$ 850, to the factory owner.

DK Managing Director Syed AQM Zahid said they were confident of structural safety as the factory was purposefully constructed as an industrial building. ‘But, our facility was constructed before formulation of the BNBC 2006 (Bangladesh National Building Code 2006).’

‘We wanted to ensure that our facility remains safe due to seismic effects as per the BNBC 2006. And for that we applied for the fund. JICA’s proposal through BKMEA/BGMEA with low rate of interest for long term grew our interest for the loan,’ he said.

JICA’s Senior Representative Hiroyuki Tomita said Japanese technology and experience to make buildings earthquake resistance can help Bangladesh to strengthen its vulnerable RMG buildings for avoiding any tragic incident like Rana plaza in future. The JICA will implement a large project soon to cover more vulnerable RMG buildings of the country, he said.

During the four-year CNCRP project (from 2011 to 2015), to be ended next month, the local engineers have been imparted training on different techniques of retrofitting by a team of JICA experts. Under the project, the Japanese experts and PWD engineers has already retrofitted the Tejgaon fire station to make an example, the press release added.