Bangladesh Rifles, under its 'Daal-bhat' programme to provide daily essential items at fair price to the public, has started construction work of the kitchen market in front of the historic eidgah.

Sources at BDR said that this is for the first time BDR is going to build a brick-made structure for its temporary fair price shops.

At present BDR runs around 20 fair price shops in the city. This programme started in March, 2007 to help people get essentials at fair price.

Construction of this market is another glaring example of vanishing open space in this city of concrete jungle.

Lt Col Fazle Akbar, chief coordinator, Operation Daal-bhat, said that they are constructing a 'temporary' market and have taken permission from PWD and the eidgah mosque committee for the market.

The Public Works Department (PWD) has a plan to do the landscaping of the park in front of the eidgah at a cost of Tk 13 lakh.

"We will demolish the market when PWD gets the funds," Col Akbar said.

The 350-year-old Eidgah Mosque on the Satmasjid Road is now going to be obscured from sight behind the 'Daal-bhat' market.

PWD has earmarked the spot for a public park. Its design was finalised last year but delay in getting allocation has held back initiation of work. The Department of Arboriculture is supposed to do the job.

Taslimuddin Jamaddar, executive engineer, PWD, said he is not sure about when the work of the park could be started. "We have verbally told BDR that there is an administrative decision on the park. They said they will demolish the market when we get the fund allocation," he said.

A BDR official said that as prices of essential commodities are soaring, Daal-bhat programme has more priority over other things.

Meanwhile, several residents of Dhanmondi have called up Star City to express frustration at the recent developments at the park site.

"We do not need a market here. We need some open space. We want a place to walk and the opening of the park as soon as possible," said a local.

Sources at PWD said the eidgah belongs to the Department of Archaeology, the mosque is a Waqf estate and the rest 2.5 acres of land belongs to PWD.

On June 11, 2006, the Ministry of Housing and Public Works approved a proposal to convert the PWD-owned land into a roadside park.

At present the land is occupied by a fair price shop of BDR, a water pump house of Wasa, a madrasa, a dormitory for madrasa students, a Desa office, a government-run warehouse, a cleaners' shed of DCC, tea-stalls, a hand-made packet factory and a marriage registrar's office.

Earlier, the mosque committee with the help of local ward commissioner Abul Khaer Bablu chopped down several trees on the site. Finding the land unattended for years, they attempted to grab it. Bablu is now in prison.

Dhanmondi Eidgah is one of the two similar eidgahs built in mid 17th century in the subcontinent. The other eidgah can be found in Delhi.