550 illegal structures knocked down
The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has kicked off an eviction drive to demolish illegal structures beside the national highway from Baghabari to Hatikumrul area in Sirajganj.
Over 550 illegal structures were demolished during the eviction drive in the last couple of days as part of the first phase. The second phase will start next month, said officials.
Md Ashraful Islam Paramnik, executive engineer of Sirajganj RHD, said the drive was launched from Baghabari point to Shahzadpur Dilruba bus stand area of Shahzadpur upazila on Sunday.
"During the drive, we have demolished over 550 illegal structures at the Parkola Bazar, Baghabari oil depot area, Shahzadpur BSCIC bus stand and Shahzadpur Dilruba bus stand area," he said.
He said over a thousand structures most of them shops, hotels and residences have been built illegally from Baghabari to Hatikumrul point of the 50km national highway over the years.
"As a result, traffic jam occurs frequently on the highway. Besides, construction work of west zone highways is likely to begin soon. So we decided to launch the drive," he added.
Meanwhile, shop keepers and owners of other establishments claimed that they have constructed their structures taking lease from RHD.
Asked, the RHD engineer said some did take lease from them many years ago but most of them did not renew those. "They are not legal occupiers anymore and there is no scope to occupy RHD land illegally," he added.
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