Neelam Ghar of Old Dhaka: Grandeur to be replaced by mere building
A century-old building in Old Dhaka, known as the Neelam Ghar, will be knocked down and lost like many other historical structures of the city.
Dhaka Bar Association got the property on lease and decided to violate the agreement and build a 20-storey building in place of the two-storey one.
The two-storey building on Court House Street holds immense architectural value, conservationists say. Built during the British era, the structure was used by the British and Pakistani rulers to auction off confiscated objects. Hence the name Neelam Ghar.
The Deputy Commissioner's Office of Dhaka, which is the custodian of the 15 decimals of land, leased it out to the bar association on February 15 for just a year.
The association laid an engraved foundation stone mentioning Bangabandhu Bhaban at the site on March 7. Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh inaugurated it.
According to the lease documents, the lessee shall neither build anything new nor change, modify and repair the existing structure. Selling, handing over, and mortgaging the property are also prohibited.
Taimur Islam, chief executive of conservation organisation Urban Study Group, said the initiative is also a violation of a 2017 High Court directive that ordered the authorities to stop changing, modifying and demolishing 2,200 British-era buildings named in the group's list of heritage sites in Old Dhaka.
Neelam Ghar is one of those buildings, he added.
"Losing such a beautiful piece of architecture will be a real shame for all of us," he said.
It is an example of Indo-Saracenic architecture, with clear neoclassical influences, he said. The two-storey rectangular building has a courtyard and is finished with lime plaster with motifs and decorative elements crafted by hand lime mortar, a hallmark of the incomparable skills of the masons from Dhaka.
"Neelam Ghar most certainly is one of the best examples of lime mortar finish," he said.
The deputy commissioner's office earlier leased out different portions of the building to 12 individuals who maintain that they have been living there for up to five decades.
Many of them have already vacated the property. One of them said the DC office stopped taking their lease fee in 2019 and didn't renew their lease.
Contacted, Deputy Commissioner Shahidul Islam said there was nothing called Neelam Ghar in government records. "We leased out a vested property as its custodian".
An official of the DC office said the bar association will not be able to make any changes to the structure.
"They will need to take permission from the DC office to construct any building," he said, requesting anonymity.
Abdul Baten, immediate past president of Dhaka Bar Association, said the new building will be constructed with permission from two ministries concerned.
"We will construct the building in phases, following the legal procedures," he said.
He said there are 27,760 lawyers in the association and they do not have any place to sit.
Asked about the HC order, Baten said he had not heard about any such directives.
Contacted, Mayor Taposh said the abandoned building was not recognised as a heritage site by the Department of Archaeology. The decision can be reconsidered if a responsible authority recognises it as an archaeological site.
THE NEELAM GHAR
Originally, the building was named the Nag Bhaban after its owner Kunja Lal Nag. According to documents, the land later came under the custody of the ministry of housing and public works.
At the DC office, after the owner of the property left the country for India in 1947, the land was marked as an enemy property, said a resident of the building.
Yousuf Aziz Muttaqi, an elderly resident of the area, said when he was a student at St Gregory's High School in 1956, his parents lived on a portion on the first floor of the building for four years.
The ground floor would be used for auctions. "I saw the auctions until 1961."