NEWSPAPERS on Thursday reported that earth excavation for raising the underground foundation of the 12-storey Twin Tower building of National Bank caused the collapse of the boundary wall between the construction site and the Sundarban Hotel on its south side at city’s Karwan Bazar area. The sudden mudslide has poised the risk of collapse of the hotel building and the authorities have already vacated the hotel anticipating the worst. The incident has raised many questions. The collapse expanded overnight threatening safety to city streets around. Why the owners of the Twin Tower did not take safety measures to protect a structure sitting on its wall when similar incidents in the city in the past made news headlines and created legal and financial problems for stakeholders in questions.
Another question hitting the city dwellers’ mind is what role the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) has in such matters. Usually such constructing work starts with approval of the building plan and construction design and RAJUK engineers are mandated to assess the risks before clearing the plan. People would like to know whether RAJUK has approved the construction plan and if it had done so, had there been these safety measures in the card.
Reports said that a section of the footpath along the CR Dutt Road at construction site and several makeshift roadside shops and were also damaged by the mudslide on Wednesday morning. It also damaged the underground gas, water and sewer pipes, forcing the authorities to cut the connections, including electricity in the locality. If the hotel authority’s claims were correct that they had alerted the site engineer a month ago about cracks in the boundary wall but he didn’t pay heed, then he must be held accountable in the first place for the neglect. The question is why such big constructions in the city are not regulated by standard rules and regulations from the RAJUK and City Corporation to protect others and make the neighbourhod safe. Experts blamed deep excavation along the boundary in a sand-filled land with poor oversight are some noticeable reasons that caused the collapse. Insiders say seepage of water through underground sewer and water supply lines caused the melting of the soil. But the owners and the builders were indifferent to the problem ignoring the risks that may befall upon the neighbours.
It is advisable that RAJUK and City Corporations must take lessons from the incident and take their accountability seriously. Only thing that works is corruption.
