The DCC and the army-led joint forces in the last week of January demolished dozens of makeshift shops, offices of different political parties and vendors illegally set up on the designated car park area at Karwan Bazar. The DCC has so far taken no initiative to convert the area into a car park facility. At present hundreds of rickshaw vans use the area to park their three wheelers during daytime.

Despite its importance as one of the most prestigious commercial areas accommodating a hundreds of important offices and business houses Karwan Bazar is devoid of parking facilities. Hundreds of cars are illegally parked in multiple rows severely disrupting traffic flow. Karwan Bazar also houses the largest wholesale market of vegetable and fruits in the country.

Sadeque Hossain Khoka, mayor, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), said that as soon as the wholesale market of Karwan Bazar is relocated a car park would be built.

"We have selected a site of Roads and Highways Department at Tejgaon to shift the market. If that is done then we will be able to make space for car park and provide commercial facilities to the buildings in that area," said Khoka.

Sources in Nagar Bhaban said that the relocation of the Karwan Bazar wholesale market is at a conceptual stage. It might take years, if the initiatives are taken now, to relocate the wholesale market and create the so-called parking facility.

Maintenance of Karwan Bazar kitchen market was handed over to DCC during Ershad regime in 1985. The land for the car park was illegally leased out to traders to make room for 160 makeshift shops.

After Khoka took over as the mayor, DCC leased out a children's park to the wholesale traders of the kitchen market. The park was set up in 1985 on two bighas of land. It was finally turned into a market by 2005.

These shops have been running for decades under the patronage of professional criminals and toll collectors belonging to two major political and the police.