Enforce National Building Code

As we stand at the close of 2019, the High Court order issued back in October, 2010 asking the government to establish a national building code enforcement authority within a year has not been complied with as yet. 

The national building code was prepared back in 1993 and it took the government 13 long years to approve it. It then lay unused for another four years till 2010 when the government began revising it again. In the long 26 years that has elapsed since it was first prepared, we have been witness to many tragic events that cost thousands of lives. From the Rana Plaza disaster to the FR Tower incident—ensuring safety has not been a priority area for the policymakers.

Experts tell us that the global practice for building code revision is three to five years. And here we have a situation where the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) has remained in limbo for nearly 30 years. More than a decade elapsed before the first revision was initiated, which has, in effect, rendered the existing building code all but obsolete. The Code, which has not been issued as gazette yet (as per the amendment of 2006), provides for seven years' punishment or Tk 50,000 in fines or both, in case of violation of the BNBC and Building Construction Rules of 2006. But as the BNBC has not been fully enforced, it has not been possible to hold anyone responsible for faulty construction design. One cannot overemphasise the importance of an enforcement authority, for the simple reason that the code applies to the entire country and not only to the five or six major cities. The government should shake off pressure from interest groups and enforce the code with the help of a powerful enforcement authority to avoid future casualties or injury.