Experts on Sunday warned of extreme consequences if a high-magnitude quake hits the city and blamed unplanned high-rise construction for the risks.
Centre director-cum-nodal officer, earthquake Safety Clinic and Centre (NIT-Patna) Ajay Kumar Sinha said: "The state has a history of moderate to severe earthquake occurrences and its area is covered in seismic zones IV and V. While the northern part of state adjacent to Nepal lies in the highest risk zone, Patna and adjoining areas fall in zone IV (high-risk)."
Sinha said: "Our first task would be to train engineers, builders and workers on how an earthquake-resistant building can be made. By using engineering and architecture designs such as jacketing of column, bracing of pillars and erecting walls on all sides on the ground floor. Erecting seismic bands from all sides can strengthen masonry buildings."
He added that the best way to minimise disaster arising from earthquakes is to create awareness on strengthening existing structure by distributing pamphlets, street plays, and involvement of people's representatives such as MPs, MLAs and ward councillors.
According to him, seismologically, the state is sitting on a time bomb. The buildings face high risk if an earthquake of high magnitude occurs.
"Patna has become a concrete jungle with no proper building plan. To overcome the risk, the Earthquake Safety Clinic and Centre inaugurated on the NIT campus by former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in January this year, has taken up the responsibility to create awareness on how to minimise earthquakes by providing information on how to restructure buildings and strengthening existing ones," he said.
The centre, which started functioning from January 20, is being assisted by Bihar State Disaster Management Authority and the unit has 15 MTech students and three teachers from the architecture branch of NIT-Patna.
Sinha said: "Countries such as Japan, Indonesia and others lie in a high-seismic zone but by using proper engineering and architectural designs, they have successfully minimised risks of earthquakes." He added: "The centre would also stress on construction of earthquake-resistant buildings in unplanned centres such as Muzaffarpur and Gaya where high-rises have come up without the nod from the disaster management authority."