Rajshahi mall closed for 3 days

The largest shopping complex in Rajshahi city -- RDA Market -- has been declared closed for shoppers until tomorrow after cracks were found at several points of the market building yesterday.
Fearing collapse of the building, its extension work was kept suspended and police were deployed at the market's main gate to avert any untoward incident.
Rajshahi Development Authority (RDA) Market Businessmen's Association announced the closure after some businessmen complained about the cracks, said Farid Mahmud Hasan, general secretary of the association.
Rajshahi Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton and lawmaker Fazle Hossain Badsha visited the complex and as per their advice, the decision to close the market was taken, he said.
Businessmen complained that a few days ago at least 10 cracks had developed in pillars, beams and a roof of the market, which houses some 2,000 shops.
They traced a long crack in the roof of the first floor and a number of cracks in two pillars and several beams of the market yesterday morning.
The businessmen alleged that the market was originally designed as a two-storey structure.
But the association extended it to a three-storey one two years back. Further extension work was started three months back to make the building a four-storey structure, they added.
Experts from the Public Works Department, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, RDA, Rajshahi City Corporation were directed to visit the complex and find out whether there had been any illegal construction works.
CRACKS FOUND IN A MANIKGANJ MARKET
A four-storey supermarket at Manikganj bus stand has been kept closed from yesterday morning after cracks were detected in its third floor.
AKM Mostofa Kamal, upazila nirbahi officer of Manikganj, issued a letter to the authority of Siddik Khan Supermarket to keep it close to avert any untoward incident.