Unnumbered buildings are being constructed in the country without compliance with the National Building Code, posing threat to life, property and environment, experts said at a discussion in the capital yesterday.

This is happening in absence of a mechanism to implement the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC), though the code was legally made mandatory in 2006, they said.

“The foremost barrier to implementing the building code is the lack of a nationally-applicable legal framework,” said M Abu Sadeque, former director of Housing and Building Research Institute.

Bangla daily Prothom Alo,1 along with Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), International Code Council and Smart Development Engineering Limited jointly organised the discussion on ‘Application of building code and implementation strategy’ at its Karwan Bazar office.

The amended building construction rules of 2008, meant for the capital city, is also followed by Chattogram Development Authority, he said.

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• 1. Besides Dhaka and other city areas, the building code is necessary for the remote areas as well since nowadays high-rise buildings are also being built there, said national professor and University of Asia Pacific vice chancellor Jamilur Reza Choudhury.

  Lamenting that the existing building code was developed in 1993 and has not been updated since then, he said, "Perhaps no other country follows such an old building code."

  He hoped that the authorities would soon pass the new one.

  Rajuk's Urban Resilence Project team leader SK Ghosh said, “About 99 per cent of the buildings don’t take occupancy certificate. The authorities should give this issue due importance.”

  Jamilur Reza Choudhury suggested that there could be a QR Code installed in every building to check the occupancy certificate.

  Rajuk chief engineer Abdul Latif Helaly said building code compliance would prevent the risk of disaster by 80 per cent.

  Source: Prothom Alo