The Japanese government will actively consider providing financial support to Bangladesh for retrofitting its all public buildings with seismic resistance, as the country is under immense thereat of devastating tremor.

"We will soon transfer our retrofitting technology to local engineers by retrofitting some public buildings here on pilot basis," Project Formulation Officer of Disaster Mitigation and Climate Change wing of Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) Hideki Katayama told BSS.

After the pilot project, Katayama said, Jica can consider formulating a project to provide financial support for re-strengthening all important public buildings, if the Bangladesh government shows their interest in this regard.

Retrofitting is such a kind of technique, which is applied to a building as an extra protection with additional support of by wall or steel.

Katayama said all important buildings in Japan, one of the most tremor-prone countries in the world, are retrofitted, a modification technique of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion or soil failure due to earthquakes.

Bangladesh must take prompt steps to re-strengthen its important public buildings, including hospitals, fire stations and schools with seismic resistance, he said.

Jica Disaster Management and Climate Change Programme officer M Anisuzzaman Chowdhury said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has already been signed between Jica and Public Works Department to transfer the technology.

A Jica expert team will be deployed here soon to retrofit one building of secretariat and Dhaka Medical College Hospital building on pilot basis, he said.

"During the pilot programme, the Japanese experts will provide theoretical and practical training to the local engineers about the technique," he said.

Bangladesh Earthquake Society President Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury told BSS that the government needs to ensure strict implementation of building codes as well as identify and retrofit the vulnerable buildings.

"The government should retrofit all public buildings as soon as possible and can offer soft loan to the people to retrofit their old buildings," he said.

Prof Jamilur Reza also said an earthquake preparedness master plan must be prepared for the cities and towns of Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Mymensingh and Rangpur districts, as about 100 million people of this areas are living under huge threat of devastating tremor.