Rajuk to move to raze 42 risky buildings

The Rajdhani Unnyan Katripakkha (Rajuk) will take steps to demolish 42 buildings in Dhaka, Gazipur, and Narayanganj within a short time, as these structures are in precarious conditions and are at risk of collapsing and causing casualties.

As part of the plan, Rajuk will ask the building authorities to vacate the structures within the next seven days and tear them down within the following three months.

It will notify the owners of 187 additional risky buildings that fall under its jurisdiction to take the necessary renovation (retrofitting) measures to reinforce their structures.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Nagar Unnayan Committee, a high-powered committee of the Housing and Public Works Ministry, held at Osmani Smriti Milonayoton yesterday.

The 42 buildings belong to eight government and autonomous bodies, namely -- the Education Engineering Department, the Department of Health Education, the Local Government Engineering Department, Jagannath University, Dhaka University, the Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board, the Institute of Leather Technology, and the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital.

These buildings were identified during a survey of 3,252 structures conducted as part of Rajuk's Urban Resilience Project, Abdul Latif Helaly, the project director, told The Daily Star.

He said they also identified 187 other buildings with structural weaknesses that required renovation (retrofitting) work.

Among the 3,252 buildings, 2,705 are educational institutes, 207 are hospitals, 36 are police stations, and 304 are other structures.

"As educational institutes and hospitals play a vital role after earthquakes, we brought them under the survey with priority," said Helaly.

"We have decided to ask its owners to vacate the buildings within seven days and demolish them within three months. We will also take steps to address the issues of other risky buildings," Kazi Wasi Uddin, secretary of the housing and public works ministry, told The Daily Star.

He said that the owners of the 187 other risky buildings would be informed about where retrofitting was required and that they would be able to obtain soft loans from the World Bank through the Urban Resilience Project to carry out the necessary renovations.

Regarding the buildings in Dhaka that were built in violation of Rajuk's plans, Wasi said that they won't take action against them now as Ramadan was just around the corner and instead decided to raise awareness among building owners first.

"The buildings that are used for both residential and commercial purposes are more prone to serious accidents," he said.

Rajuk Chairman Anisur Rahman Miah told The Daily Star that they would take the necessary steps after receiving the findings of the Rajuk committees formed to find illegal buildings and buildings with irregularities.

He said they would raise public awareness first since there were many who didn't even know that they were at huge risk of accidents.

"We will publish advertisements and will serve notices in many cases as part of the awareness campaign," he added.

Anisur also said that they decided to require building owners to submit all designs (i.e., floor plans, electrical and plumbing layouts) to Rajuk in order to obtain permission for a building plan, so none could construct buildings with any deviations.

Rajuk's Town Planner Ashraful Islam told The Daily Star that the meeting also decided to require government and autonomous bodies like Dhaka University and Buet to obtain permission from Rajuk before building any structure, as they currently do not.

Fazle Reza Sumon, president of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners, said the meeting decided to identify all vulnerable buildings as part of a long-term plan.

Rajuk will involve a third party for a detailed engineer assessment of Dhaka's buildings to assess their vulnerability, he said.

"As Rajuk lacks capacity, BIP has suggested enlisting the assistance of third parties to vet the designs that a building owner will submit in order to obtain permission to construct the building," he said.

Sumon said the meeting also agreed to take the necessary steps to protect the waterbodies identified in the Detailed Area Plan in order to create open spaces.

"A project will also have to be undertaken so that the waterbodies that are under private ownership can be preserved by acquiring them," he said.