Preventive measure against bank robbery

Reporting on the theft of nearly twenty million taka cash from BRAC Bank vault in Joypurhat, a newspaper provided a sketch which showed how the robbers came through the common wall of an adjoining office; which could be easily accessed.

To stop this from happening, all common walls bordering another office or shop should be covered by a five inch wall after a diagonal mesh of 1/8 inch thick steel netting is plastered to the inside wall of the bank. The vault should be done on the roof or floor, and all walls of the vault should be well secured so that none can cut through the walls, floor or roof. All this must be done with top quality materials. The work must be closely supervised. Such steel moulded wire netting inside the wall will ensure that it cannot be cut from outside. All cement plaster should be done minimum at 1:3 cement: sand ratio. This may cost around three to five hundred thousand taka depending on the size and location of the bank.  

If this is done dismantling of such a steel net reinforced wall is extremely difficult.  It will require heavy equipment and gas cutting set. It will need well over 18 hours or even more to make a small hole to cut the net, and then another six to eight hours to cut through the inside five inch wall set in 1:3 cement plaster all round. Also this will need compressed air equipment. The whole process will make much noise itself even if the security guards are bound up and immobilized.

Engr S A Mansoor

Dhaka

sam@dhakacom.com