I C U SNewsletter
Volume 13

Number1

Apr. to Jun. 2013

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo

Savar Building Tragedy in Bangladesh: Way forward
By Mehedi Ahmed Ansary
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

On 24th April at 9:00 A. M.,
a 9-storey building, Rana Plaza
collapsed in Savar, 25 kilometers
north of the Bangladesh capital,
Dhaka (refer Figures 1 & 2). The
building housed several garment

factories, a bank and several shops.
As of August, 1,132 people died,
2,428 people were rescued andprovided with immediate basic firstaid or transferred to nearby hospitals
for medical attention. According to

BGMEA (Bangladesh Garments
Manufacturers
andExporters
Association), 2,800 workers of the
6 garment factories were in thebuilding during the accident. But
the actual number is around 3,900

Figure 1 Aerial view of the building after collapse

(CPD, 2013). This article presents
the search and rescue efforts
undertaken by different agencies in
Bangladesh to rescue people fromunderneath the collapsed building
and tries to explain the reasons
behind the building collapse.
Search and Rescue
Operations
Local volunteers, volunteersof the Bangladesh Red CrescentSociety (BRCS), personnel fromthe Bangladesh Fire Service andCivil Defense, Bangladesh Armed
Forces personnel, Border Guard
Bangladesh and local police wereinvolved in search, rescue andevacuation operation of trapped
garment workers at Savar Building
collapse site.
The BRCS was among the first
responders on the scene. 100 trained
volunteers were on the ground on arotation providing search and rescue,basic first aid and safe drinking water.
The organization also established amobile medical team to assist thewounded. The BRCS ambulanceservice transported wounded people
to various hospitals, and also helped
to manage dead bodies. Restorationof Family Link (RFL) volunteers
provided mobile phone services
for the injured (see Figures 3 & 4)
to connect with their families andrelatives, and also compiled a list of
the missing, injured and dead.
Reasons behind the
Building Collapse
Rana Plaza was a 9-storey
industrial building with a single
basement. The local municipality
gave the owner permission to
construct a 5-storey commercial
building with one basement in 2005
and later allowed the owner to extend
it up to 9-storey, without considering
the consequence of such action. The

Page 2

Figure 2 Location of collapsed building

owner is a potentially influential
person in Savar area and probably
he used his political muscle power
to obtain the permission to extend
the building up to 9 storeys fromlocal (Savar) municipality. The
width of the building was around 25
m and length around 80 m. A typicalgrid of the building is 5.2 m by 8.2

m. The column sizes vary from 35
cm by 35 cm to 45 cm by 45 cm.
The building was supported by pilefoundation having 45 cm diameterand length of 18.3 m.
The three main reasons can be
attributed to the collapse of thestructure: (i) Addition of four
extra floors; (ii) Conversion of

Figure 3 Some critically injured garment workers

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 13, No.1

Figure 4 Rescue operation

the building from commercial toindustrial use and (iii) Placementof Power Generator at the higher
floors. The steel grade used was 60
grade deformed bar and concrete
strength was found around 3,000 psi[see Figure 5].
Way Forward
Bangladesh faced its worst humantragedy through Rana Plaza building
collapse at Savar, Dhaka. In 1996
at Kalabagan, in 1997 at Khilgaon,in 2004 at Sakaribazar, in 2005 at
Savar, in 2006 at Mahakhali, in 2010
at Hatirjheel and at Kathalbagan
similarincidences
occurred
where altogether several hundred
people were killed. Enforcementof Bangladesh National Building
Code (BNBC) has become the top
priority.
Immediately, we need to set up
a Building Regulatory Authority(BRA) as prescribed in BNBC.
BRA will aim to deliver: Better
safeguards for consumers; Building
industrytransformation
andLegislative reform. The Building
Authority will work closely withfour statutory bodies to provide
industry leadership and will regulatebuilding quality. The associatedbodies will be the Building Advisory
Council, Building Appeals Board,
Building Practitioners Board andthe Building Regulations Advisory
Committee. The Authority and four

Figure 5 (a) Broken samples collected from the building sitebodies will
• Regulate Bangladesh’s building
industry• Administer the registration of acountry’s building practitioners
and monitor their conduct• Advise the relevant Ministerand the Government on building
regulatory development• Administer building legislation, theBuilding Act 1952 and Building
Regulations 2008
• Resolve disputes and appealsarising from the Building Act• Inform consumers about building
and renovating• Communicate changes that occur
in building legislation• Promote improved building
standards
nationallyandinternationally• Providecomprehensiveinformation
on building activity• Inform industry decision making
through data and analysis• Facilitate industry research• Support the uptake of information
technology and e-commerce• Encouragesustainable
andaccessiblebuilding
design,construction and use
The BRA will carry out thesefunctions in consultation with awide variety of stakeholders.

Figure 5 (b) Concrete cores collected from beams,
columns and slabs of the collapsed building

Source of few pictures:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Ranaplaza+photos&qpvt=Ranaplaza+photos

ICUS Newsletter Apr. to jun. 2013

Page 3

Quake of M6.3 in Awaji Island
By Dr. Takashi Kiyota, IIS, The University of Tokyo

On 13th April, 2013, an earthquakeof Magnitude 6.3 hit Awaji Island,
Hyogo Prefecture. Since thenoticeably large seismic intensityof 6 minus on the JMA scale wasrecorded at Gunge and Shizuki
in Awaji city, this earthquake
memorized us the 1995 Hyogoken Nambu (Kobe) earthquake thatcaused extensive damage to thisarea. Fortunately, however, no one
was killed, and major damages tototal 6 houses and minor damages
to total about 8,000 houses werereported.
The major damages from thisearthquake were in the estuary
regions in Awaji city and Sumoto
city which are located on the east
coast of Awaji Island. This is dueto the amplification effect of thestrong ground motion in the soft soil
deposit. We visited in the Awaji city
on 15th April, two days after theearthquake for damage survey on
the geotechnical aspect.
The occurrence of moderateliquefaction was observed at thereclaimed lands in Awaji city.
Although the liquefaction-induced
damage to the roads and buried
lifelines were observed, the extent ofdamage was not as much as that of the2011 of the Pacific coast of Tohoku
earthquake, and the rehabilitation
works in Awaji city seemed to bedone in an expeditious way. There
are more than 20,000 agricultural
water reservoirs in Awaji Island, andsome damages were reported in the
1995 Hyogo-ken Nambu earthquake.
We therefore visited some water

Typical damage to tiled roof in Sumoto city (courtesy Prof. Mikami,
Tokushima Univ.)

reserviours in the epicentrial areain Awaji city so far as time permits.
There were no reservoiurs thatneeded an emergency responce, but
only minor cracking at the dam crest
was observed.
As outlined above, the damage tothe social infrastructures by thisearthquake was insignificant ascompared to the recent large
earthquakes. However, Awaji Islandis thought to be one of the affected
regions of the Tonankai and Nankai
earthquakes envisaged by thegovernment's Earthquake ResearchCommittee. Therefore, it is important
to enhance more effective earthquake
disaster preparedness by learning
the damage aspects caused by thisearthquake.

Boiled sand onthe side walk and rehabilitation
work in Awaji city

Magnitude 7.8 Earthquake Hit Eastern Iran on 16th April 2013
By Mr. Mehrdad Sadeghzadeh, Meguro Lab

On 16th April, 2013 at 10:44:20
UTC (15:14:20 local time), an
earthquake with Mw7.8 (BHRC:
Building and Housing ResearchCenter, Iran), struck Sistan-vaBaluchestan, Hormozgan, Kerman,
Southern Khorasan and Yazd
Provinces in Iran as shown in
Figure 1. The peak acceleration
was recorded at Sabz-Gazz station(196 cm/S2). The epicenter ofPage 4the event was located 28.24N,
62.14E (BHRC). It was the largest
earthquake in Iran within the last
40 years. This earthquake occurred
as a result of normal faulting at anintermediate depth in the Arabianplate lithosphere, approximately
80 km beneath the Earth's surface.
Regional tectonics are dominatedby the collisions of the Arabianand India plates with Eurasia;

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 13, No.1

at the longitude of this event,the Arabian plate is converging
towards the north-northeast at a
rate of approximately 37 mm/yr
with respect to the Eurasian plate.
Arabian plate lithosphere is subducted beneath the Eurasian plateat the Makran coast of Pakistan and
Iran, and becomes progressively
deeper into the north.

The sub-ducted Arabian plateis known to be seismically active
to depths of about 160 km. The
frequency of moderate and large
earthquakes within the sub-ductedArabian plate is not high comparedwith similar events in some othersub-ducted plates worldwide, butseveral earthquakes have occurred
within this slab in the region of
today's event over the past 40 years,
including a Mw 6.7 shock 50 km
to the south in 1983. In January of
2011, Mw 7.2 earthquake occurred
approximately 200 km to the east, ina similar tectonic environment to theApril 16 earthquake.
Figure 2 shows some damages inaffected areas. Since the area was
not very densely populated and the
predominating building construction
was relatively light materials such as
mud and wood, 35 people were killedand 117 were injured, including
1 dead, 12 injured in Iran and 34
dead, 105 injured in Pakistan. All
communications in the area were cut
and rescue teams were dispatched to

Figure 1 Seismic intensity distribution map by IIEES

Figure 2 Damages in Nikshahr (left) and in Saravan (right)

the affected area according to the
Iranian Red Crescent's. There werereports of tremors felt in Qatar,
Bahrain, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, in theGulf, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan andIndia. In Delhi, more than 1,500 km
from the epicenter, office workers
evacuated buildings as fittings shookand windows rattled.

ICUS Open House 2013
By Dr. Kohei Nagai

On May 31 and June 1, ICUS
participated on celebrating IIS OpenHouse 2013. In this occasion, IIS(Institute of Industrial Science) was
open to all people including experts.
Overall 5,000 people visited this year.
ICUS is mainly focusing on its research
activities toward the establishment ofsafety and sustainable urban systems.
All member laboratories participatedand showed their research activities
through panels. Several ICUS`sactivities; such as open symposium,international conference: USMCA,
RNUS and BNUS`s activities weredisseminated through the panels andannual reports.
Pre-open of the Open House
was organized on May 30, andregistered 5 guests joined the special
tour to know the ICUS activities.
After the brief introduction of the
ICUS by Dr. Nagai, they visited thelaboratories of Prof. Koshihara onwood structures, Dr. Kuwano on
geotechnical engineering and Dr.
Ohara on disaster management.
Guests could learn discuss withICUS members intensively. During
the Open House, an ICUS Quiz
was prepared following the successof previous years. About 80 people
participated in the quiz and got prizes
such as photo stands, picture books,
ICUS special calendars, small bags,
and key holders.

Activities on ICUS exhibition room, Bw601 during IIS Open House 2013

ICUS Newsletter Apr. to jun. 2013

Page 5

Promotion of the Poly Propylene Band Mesh
Technology in Indonesia
By Prof. Kimiro Meguro

I visited Indonesia during 10 to 14,
April with Mr. M. Watanabe, SeniorResearcher of Meguro Lab. to meet
important persons and explain them
about Poly Propylene Band Mesh
(PPBM) Technology for seismic
retrofit of weaker masonry houses.
The major cause of massive
casualties due to recent earthquakes
is, beyond all dispute, collapseof masonry structures as we saw
in, among many others, Izmit inTurkey in 1999, Gujarat in India in
2001, Bam in Iran in 2003, Aceh
in Indonesia in 2004, Kashmirin Pakistan in 2005, Central Javain Indonesia in 2006, Padang inIndonesia in 2007, Wenchuan in
China in 2008 and Port au Prince in
Haiti in 2010.
Although casualties were not somany, the earthquake which hit the
town of cultural heritage in northern
Italy in 2012 attracted world-wide
attention to the high risks of masonry
structures such as churches, castles
and storages for wine and cheese toearthquake.
In view of growing vulnerabilities
of masonry structures to earthquake
and high risks of another big one in
the areas of Padang, West Sumatra,Indonesia, we applied to the JICA
sponsored Grass-Root Technology
Cooperation Scheme for a grant.
The Japan International Cooperation

Mayor’s residence in Padang

Agency, JICA, had decided thata project entitled “Project for
Earthquake Safer Built Environment
employing PP-Band Mesh Seismic
Retrofit Technology for Masonry
Housing” was accepted. We are in
the process of making a contract with
JICA for successful implementationof the project.
The project will be implemented
in partnership with the Royal Silk
Foundation in Yogyakarta andState University of Padang of West
Sumatra Province. The Royal Silk
Foundation is famous for emergency
relief as well as multi-spectral
approaches to poverty alleviation inrural areas and had established strong
ties with Japanese organizations.
We got acquainted with the peopleof the State University of Padang
through the JICA-JST project “Multi
disciplinary Hazard Reduction
from Earthquakes and Volcanoes
in Indonesia” and agreed to the

Coordination Ministry of Economic Affairs

Page 6

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 13, No.1

project.
The PPBM Technology is featured
by its unique natures; low-cost,easy to employ, high performanceand high durability so that it must
be referred to as a Columbus’s egg
technology. Unfortunately however
people at risk are not aware of aneasy approach to simple technology
and its high availability.
We met the Mayor of Padang cityand Deputy Governor of the West
Sumatra Province and explained
about the effects of PPBM byshowing the filmed experiments.
We met, in Bandung and Jakarta,
the D.G. of the R&D Division of
Public Works Department, theDeputy Minister of the Coordination
Ministry for Economic Affairs
and the Director of the ASEAN
Secretariat. All of them appreciatedfor our efforts for an earthquake
resilient society in Indonesia, as thefirst step, and throughout the world.

ASEAN Secretary

U-Tokyo President’s IIS Bangkok Office Visitation
and Thai Alumni Gathering
By Dr. Akiyuki Kawasaki

On May 30, 2013, U-Tokyo’s 10th
President's Council meeting was heldin Bangkok, Thailand. This council
was established to explore theUniversity’s future direction throughdiscussion between the President anddistinguished council members fromvarious fields. The meeting is being
held annually around the world.
The welcome reception hosted
by Her Royal Highness Princess
Chulabhorn of Thailand was held
and about 150 guests were invited,
including the university alumni,
VIPs of international and Thaigovernmental organizations, andexecutives of Japanese companies
in Thailand. Besides, a dialog
meeting for discussing overseas

alumni activities was held among therepresentatives from three alumnigroups in Thailand, including
IIS Alumni Chapter in Thailand,and U-Tokyo’s executives, suchas President Hamada, Prof.
Egawa, Director of Alumni Office(Executive Vice President, VP),
and Prof. Haneda, Director Generalof International Affairs Division(VP). On the day before the council,
President and executives visited
IIS Bangkok Branch Office at
Chulalongkorn University, locatedin central Bangkok. During thisvisitation, Prof. Meguro introduced
ICUS’s research and education
activities in Thailand and surrounding
Asian countries to President Hamada
and executives.

President and executives at IIS Bangkok office

ICUS Activities April - June
TravelDate

Name

CountryCity

Apr. 4- May 31
Apr. 9-11
Apr. 11-14
Apr. 12-28
Apr. 17-19
May 26-31
May 27-Jun. 1
May 29-31
Jun. 5-Aug. 23
Jun. 15-21
Jun. 17-20

Dr. Kawasaki
Dr. Kawasaki
Prof. Meguro
Prof. Sawada
Prof. Meguro
Dr. Mumada
Prof. Sawada
Prof. Meguro
Dr. Kawasaki
Dr. Mumada
Dr. Kawasaki

ThailandMyanmarIndonesia
BrasilChina
Macedonia
FranceThailandThailand
U.S.A
MyanmarBangkok
YangonJakarta, Padang
ManausBeijing
SkopieParis
Bangkok
Bangkok
New York
YangonCategory
Meeting
Meeting
Project
Meeting
Symposium
WorkshopMeeting
Conference
Meeting

PurposeOperation of BNUS & lecture
Visit to Yangon Technology University, JICA and Japanese Embassy
To meet regarding TTB
Research and meeting of carbon dynamics of amazonian forest
International advisory board meeting
To attend the SE-5CEEEJapan & France workshop, Japanese & France technology adjustment meeting

10th President’s council meeting, IIS alumni chapter in Thailand
Operation of BNUS & lecture
To attend the ICOSSAR2013
Visit to Yangon Technological University

ICUS Welcomes Prof. Taikan OKI
By Prof. Kimiro Meguro

We are pleased to welcome Prof.
Taikan OKI on the return of the
ICUS member in the Environment
Informatics Division. He has beenheading Hydrology and Water
Resource Engineering Laboratory,
IIS. Beside the University of Tokyo,
he had worked at several places
such as; NASA, USA, the ResearchInstitute for Humanity and Nature in
Kyoto, the Council for Science andTechnology Policy, Cabinet Officeof Japan. His contributions were
honored many times; the Biwako
Prize for Ecology in 2011, the Japan
Academy Medal from the Japan

Academy, and JSPS Prize fromJapan Society for the Promotion of
Science in 2008. He is one of thecoordinating lead authors for thechapter “Freshwater Resources” of
the 5th assessment report of IPCC
Working Group II.
We again welcome him andlooking forward to his numerous
contributions to create safer andsustainable urban systems.

ICUS Newsletter Apr. to jun. 2013

Page 7

Editor’s note…
On the articles of this volume of theNewsletter, two points are introduced
from the editor. One is about themain article that is the collapse of an
RC building in Dhaka, Bangladesh
reported by Professor Mehedi Ahmed
Ansary from BUET. This event
teaches us a lot of important points,
such as design of structures, quality
control of construction and selectionof materials,
compliance withstructural design criteria, maintenance,
information release of structure tousers, etc. According to a series ofaccidents repeatedly happened, thisevent can be considered the tip of
the iceberg of numerous poor quality
structures. Considering the fact that
the RC building was totally collapsed
without any external force, such as
seismic ground motion, damage will
be very serious in case of earthquake
even when shaking is relatively small.
As these are common issues in all over
the world, especially in developing
countries, we should try to findsolutions by sharing experiences andrelated information.

The second one is a good news that
Professor Taikan OKI, well known
to the world as leading researcher
in the field of hydrology and water
resources engineering, has returned
ICUS in April 2013. This is a great
reinforcement of ICUS in Environment
Informatics Division and flood
disaster management. We hope thatwith the help of Professor OKI, ICUS
can contribute for improving safetyof urban areas against extrordinary
metrological events in the world aswell as Asian countries
By K. Meguro

USMCA2013: Oct 9-11, Hanoi, Vietnam
The 12th International Symposium on New Technologies For Urban Safely of Mega Cities in Asia
(USMCA2013) going to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam on October 9-11, 2013.
Further information is available at the USMCA2013 official website: http://www.usmca2013.vn/

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS)
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3) 5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3) 5452-6476
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp

The International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS) is a research
center located at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo.
The purpose of ICUS is to identify, investigate, and resolve issues towards therealization of sustainable urban systems for the prosperity and safety of society
considering challenging socio-economic problems.