Halt housing project near Dhaka-Mawa highway

The High Court yesterday directed the authorities concerned to maintain status quo on position and possession of a project of Amin Mohammad City near Dhaka-Mawa highway at Sirajdikhan upazila in Munshiganj for next six months.

Responding to a writ petition, the court also issued a rule upon the government to explain in four weeks as to why its inaction and failure to cancel the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) certificate issued for the project should not be declared illegal.

Shaharia Kabir, a lawyer for the petitioner, Mohammad Abdullah, managing director of Al Muslim Builders, said the Amin Mohammad City authorities now cannot build any structure or sell plots under the project and not even advertise for those.

According to National Survey Organisation, Amin Mohammad City has 30.911 acres of land inside the project. But the housing company, showing details of 30 acres of land which belong to Al Muslim Builders, claimed that they have 115.66 acres of land near the highway and got the EIA certificate from the Department of Environment on last July 8 for the project.

As per Section 7 (1) of Private Housing Project Land Development Rules, an entrepreneur has to own at least 70 percent of land under his/her housing project but Amin Mohammad City has only 32.66 percent, he added.

Al Muslim Builders was also directed to maintain status quo.