Chittagong Bureau :
The drive to move illegal dwellers beside ‘risky’ hillsides and hill-pockets in Chittagong to safer places was launched on Friday.
The local administration has been asking people living in the areas to leave before the monsoon intensifies. As many as 200 families from the Batali Hill and Matijhorna areas were moved on Friday amid heavy rain.
Besides, miking is also continuing on behalf of the district administration and police to leave the risky landslide prone zone areas immediately.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong SM Abdul Kader said the district administration has requested the risky hillside dwellers to relocate to safer places. As a result, a few number of illegal dwellers left the risky different city parts included Oxygen, Hamjar Bagh, Muradpur, Aturar Depot, Bahaddarhat, Shulakbahar, Katalganj, Nasirabad, Baizid, 2 no. Gate, Sholoshohor, Chalkbazaar, Panchlaish, DC Road, Khaja Road, Chandgaon, Mohra, Bakalia, Chaktai, Rajakhali, Dewanbazaar, Doublemouring, Agrabad, Chhotopool, Boropool, CDA, Halishahar, Pahartoli, Sharaipara, Shagorika and lower parts of Patenga.
Due to the water-logging, traffic movements in most of the areas remain suspended. Traffic movements in Halishahar, Barapol, chotapol, Muradpur, solasahar, Nasirabad remain suspended till yesterday evening. The motorized rickshaws, auto-rickshaws and CNG-run auto-rickshaws went off road in last two days.
The ground floors of the low-lying areas and also in posh areas in city submerged and caused damage to properties. The wholesalers and retailers of essential commodities in Chaktai, khatungonj as well as kitchen markets in city were the worst sufferers as their valuable commodities damaged due to the inundation and water-logging happened in late night when there was none in their respective shops and business houses.
Many vehicles were also seen out of order due to excessive rain water on the road. Office goers and day labourers faced problems while going to their work places as filthy water remained stagnant on many roads and there was a shortage of public transport.
All private and public schools remained closed yesterday due to absence of students. All academic classes and examinations of these city schools were unofficially declared closed yesterday. The examination of Teachers Training College of Chittagong was also declared stopped as the underground floor of the college submerged. City corporation schools sources said all the second semester examination of the schools declared suspended due to this unexpected situation.
A city corporation executive engineer Anwar Hossain said water-logging in the city could not be stopped as most of the drains and canals in city are silted and they need proper digging. Besides, there is no alternative to digging of new canals to relieve the dwellers from water-logging.
Sources said, the construction worker was killed and the three others were injured following the wall collapse of boundary wall of a mosque due to heavy downpour. The incident occurred at Rahmatnagar residential area in East Nasirabad under Panchalaish thana on Saturday morning.
Police camp sources at Chittagong Medical College Hospital said the four critically injured construction workers were brought to the hospital at 6:00 am on Saturday. Of them, one Aslam succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. The three others were admitted to hospital for treatment. The injured workers were identified as Md. Mamun, Sefazul and Md. Khokan.
Fire Brigade sources said a boundary wall of Rahamat Nagar Jame Mosque fall upon a adjoining kutcha house where four construction labourers were sleeping.
Port sources said that the loading and uploading of containers remain halted due to the heavy rain. All loading, unloading in outer berth of the port remain suspended from Thursday evening, said the sources.
Patenga Weather Office Forecast Officer Bishwajeet Choudhury said a total of 426.2 millimeters (MM) of rainfall were recorded in last 48 hours till 9:00 am yesterday. The heavy rainfall may continue due to monsoon, he added.
