News Desk :
Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) on Tuesday started demolishing three risky buildings including one that tilted at Majhirghat in Sadarghat area of the port city on Monday night, reports UNB.
CDA officials said a building tilted during the ongoing canal re-excavation work to end waterlogging in the port city.
Local people staged demonstrations in the area on Tuesday demanding compensation from the CDA authorities.
Shahinul Islam, chief city planning officer of CDA, said “According to the CDA guidelines, a structure should be established 15 feet off a canal and during the approval of the building the authorities concerned warned the owners of it . But the owners constructed the buildings adjacent to the canal ignoring the warning.” A notice was served on the owners before starting the re-excavation work of the canal, he said.
Besides, the CDA authorities also asked them to show legal documents but they failed to show it.
A building tilted towards a nearby building on Monday, triggering
panic among locals. Besides, two building in the same area were identified as risky.
A rescue team from Agrabad Fire Service Station managed to evacuate the residents of the building.
Earlier, three buildings and a Hindu temple tilted apparently due to canal excavation works of the Chattogram Development Authority at Sadarghat area in thecity on Monday night.
The buildings are owned by Swapan Das, Monoranjon Das and Moti Das at Fakirpara of Sadarghat area.
Arati Das, a resident of the buildings, said, ‘At about 11:00pm, we noticed that our building was shaking. We immediately got out of the building. Residents of the other buildings stayed there till about 12:10am,’ she said.
She said that the CDA was excavating Gulzar canal adjacent to their buildings for two years.
Some portion of a building was demolished earlier for the canal excavation works, but the other parts remained in risky condition, she added.
However, no casualty took place, she said.
The owners of the building demanded compensation from the authorities concerned.
Faruk Ahmed, the assistant director of Chattogram Fire Service and Civil Defence, told New Age that they evacuated residents on early Tuesday immediately after getting information about the buildings.
The Chattogram Development Authority’s project titled ‘canal re-excavation, renovation and expansion to eradicate waterlogging in Chattogram’, a mega project, at a cost of Tk 5,616 crore, is being implemented under the supervision of the Bangladesh Army.
The project director for Bangladesh Army’s 34 engineer construction brigade Lieutenant Colonel Md Shah Ali told the media that the buildings tilted due to faults in the construction of the buildings.
‘We took precautions before starting works. A portion of one of the buildings was demolished in 2019 as it was built on the canal illegally,’ he said.
