Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam yesterday said that the buildings of Bangladesh Secretariat are not at risk of fire from electrical short circuit, but the buildings are under threat of earthquake. “There are circuit breakers in all the buildings of the secretariat. And that’s why it is not possible to breakout fire from a short circuit,” he told the reporters after the cabinet meeting at the secretariat.

“The Building-1, where situated the office of the Cabinet Division, is a 60-70 years old and its base is very weak. We have a standing alert on earthquake,” he informed.

He informed that the office of the Prime Minister and the room of the cabinet meeting have been relocated from the Building-1 to Building-6 due to earthquake hazard. Shafiul Alam also said that the Public Works Department (PWD) authorities were replacing the old fire extinguishers from the buildings of the hub of the country’s civil administration.

He said that the tectonic plates at Dawki, located in West Jaintia Hills district under Meghalaya province of India, which is border of Sylhet district, is very vulnerable. If the earthquake occurred, it would take two minutes to inflict Dhaka.

The Cabinet Secretary also informed that they will hold an inter-ministerial meeting with the secretaries of different ministries soon to find-out a way to free the buildings from the fire hazard and also create awareness on the matter.

Shafiul Alam further informed that they are planning to build high-rises near the mosque of secretariat and the design of the buildings have already finalized.