On 18 September 2011, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck near the India-Nepal border, 272 km (169 mi) east of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. The earthquake which occurred at 18:10 (local time) triggered at least two aftershocks of magnitude 6.1 and 5.3, causing several fatalities, injuries and building damage. The earthquake was felt as far as Kathmandu, and even though no buildings collapsed there, the possible damage to buildings was of concern.

AIT Consulting was invited by the World Bank to carry out the post-earthquake initial structural assessment of World Bank Nepal Country Office, Kathmandu. Some members of the structural assessment team from AIT and AIT Consulting, including Mr. Thaung Htut Aung (Projects Coordinator), Mr. Matrin Suthasit (Senior Researcher) and Mr. Kiran Acharya (Project Engineer), visited the site from 2 to 4 October 2011 to review possible damage caused in the building, and to gather firsthand information.

During the site visit, meetings were held with the senior staff from World Bank and building management, the engineer, the architect and structural engineers who had also conducted previous seismic hazard assessment for the building. Relevant and available drawings, documents and previous assessments conducted were collected for further review. The apparent damage was recorded by photography and by simple measurements during the visit.