"Several lakh people would have been killed in Dhaka had a similar earthquake of 7.6-magnitude shaken the city," said Director of Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre, Muhammad Saidur Rahman.

Vice-chancellor of Brac University Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury, a noted structural engineer himself, believes that at least 40 percent of the structures will collapse if such a strong earthquake hits Dhaka.

"We are not prepared at all to handle an earthquake disaster due to unplanned urban growth and poor construction of buildings," Saidur said, citing a 2001 survey that rated Tehran and Dhaka as the most vulnerable cities to such disasters.

He said responding agencies do not have required rescue equipment and adequately trained personnel to face a post-earthquake situation.

A quake will be more catastrophic for the old part of Dhaka as the area is densely populated and congested with worn-out buildings, Saidur said.

The rescue vehicles of fire brigade, army and other agencies will not be able to reach the area through its narrow lanes after an earthquake.

According to a study conducted by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) in 2003, about 60 percent structures in Old Dhaka are non-engineered. Of those, 50 percent are made of flammable materials.

The disaster management ministry at a meeting on July 31, 2003 identified Rampura-Khilkhet and Shyamoli-Adabar areas as most vulnerable as soil in those areas is unable to withstand a huge earthquake pressure.

Experts and civil engineers say all the non-engineered structures of Dhaka city will collapse even in a moderate-intensity earthquake.

The Assam earthquake in 1897, with the epicentre 250 kilometres off Dhaka, killed 1,542 people and brought down 50 percent of the masonry structures. The city population was then only 90,000.

"One can easily foresee the extent of human catastrophe in the event of an earthquake with a of 7 to 8 intensity in Dhaka. The city has 100 times more population and unplanned structures," said Mehedi Ahmed Ansary, an associate professor of Buet, who has worked on earthquake disasters in Dhaka.

The experts say the government must make a vulnerability assessment of the buildings of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and other hospitals, fire service stations, schools, university halls and the buildings with concentration of children and women, and renovate them to reduce human catastrophe.

They emphasised immediate measures to ensure compliance with the National Building Code of 1993 in the construction of buildings and retrofitting of major buildings of high public importance.

"The law on building code will hopefully be passed in the next parliament session, making the building codes of 1993 mandatory," Public Works Secretary Iqbal Uddin Chowdhury told Star City.

Food and Disaster Manage-ment Minister Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yousuf at a meeting on Monday directed the director general of Disaster Management Bureau to hold a co-ordination meeting of all the ministries concerned and draw an action plan on earthquake management within seven days, a meeting source said.

Under a contingency plan on earthquake disaster management, Dhaka will be divided into eight zones in the event of an earthquake. The Armed Forces Division will carry out search and rescue operations.

As part of the plan, an expert committee headed by Prof Choudhury has recommended purchase of equipment worth Tk 125 crore in the first phase.

But the Disaster Management Bureau has sent a proposal to the Planning Commission for allocation of Tk 202 crore as the equipment are very expensive, Director General of the Bureau Rafiqul Mohamed said.

"We have so far arranged two mock exercises of earthquake disaster management in the open field," the DG said about the preparedness to address a disaster in the densely populated city suffocated by unplanned structures.

President of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (Rehab) Dr Toufiq M Seraj said all the buildings constructed by the Rehab members are fitted with earthquake resistant mechanisms.

The Rehab members every year deliver around 6,000 flats in Dhaka. Experts however said only 20 to 30 percent of the recently constructedÊbuildings in Dhaka have earthquake resistant designs.