Authorities of Jagannath University have recently embarked on demolishing the building along with an ancient garden to make room for a 20-storey high-rise building with an initial cost Tk 23 crore for seven-storey construction.

The building housed an Indian bank during British era in the subcontinent.

"The Antiquity Act of 1976 and amended Building Constriction Act of 2006 do not permit such act of destroying heritage site," said architect of Taimur Islam, convenor of Urban Study Group (USG) working for conservation of Shankhari Bazar heritage site.

The USG along with Campaign for Heritage Conservation, a forum of urban experts and scholarly professionals, is working on conservation of all the heritage buildings and sites in the area.

"According to the antiquity law, any building more than 100 years old must be preserved as part of heritage," said Taimur. "Moreover, the said building has to be preserved on aesthetic and cultural grounds."

He also said the authorities concerned have to obtain approval of the construction plan for the proposed 20-storey high-rise at the site.

"We are not aware of any plan approval for the 20-storey building at the Jagannath University," said a highly placed source at Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).

"As per the building construction rules of 2006, Rajuk is not supposed to approve the construction plan endorsing demolition of a heritage building," Taimur said.

The rule no- 2/21 of the Building Construction Rules of 2006 clearly provides for conservation of such old buildings that have heritage, architectural, historical and cultural significance.

"As per rules, we refer a construction plan to the departments of archeology and architecture for opinion in case the construction is proposed at a site with hesitative establishments," said Rajuk Chief Engineer Emdadul Islam.

Terming the building as "depilated" and "abandoned," Vice-chancellor of Jagannath University Prof Sirajul Islam said that they have hired a consulting firm and an expert architect from Buet as adviser for the work.

He admitted that the building housed the library of the university.

At no stage of the survey and project preparation they showed any reservation to demolition of the building, said the VC. "Neither the department of archeology nor anyone else ever came for conservation of the building."

"As none showed any interest to repair and conserve it, we thought we could demolish the building along with the garden to build a 20-storey high-rise," said the VC.

He admitted that it was an aesthetic building. He also said that consulted with all the deans and chairmen of the university before undertaking the project and that "whatever we have done, we have done on consensus."

President of Institute of Architects Bangladesh Khadem Ali said that a consulting firm in such case has to be employed following the rules of Public Procurement Rules (PPR) to ensure competence of the consultants and architects.

"We are not aware of whether rules have been properly followed in hiring the consultant firm in this case," said Ali, "We don't endorse such act of destroying a heritage building."

"Even if the rules have been followed, the decision of demolishing the heritage building is just wrong and undesirable because it implies destruction of an element heritage," he said.

"It is a serious lapse on part of a vice-chancellor to proceed for demolishing a historic monument without consulting the civil society representatives and departments of archeology and architecture," Khadem Ali said.

It is to be examined how in and what way the consultant firm has been involved with the project, said Taimur Islam, "In fact, there are manifold irregularities in the whole process of undertaking the project."

"So far as we have heard, the tender document suggests restoration, repair and extension of the old building," he said, construction of such infrastructure of a university must be as per a master plan.