The portion of a Gulshan road which subsided on Friday had collapsed because of negligence from Rajuk-appointed contractors working on the development of Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara Lake, locals have alleged.
Tenants and flat owners living on Road 55 in Gulshan 2, where the lake-adjacent collapsed road is located, claimed that contractors working there had failed to put up any protection fence for preventing a landslide at the work site.
Authorities concerned also admitted that there was no protective measure in place when the road collapsed.
Visiting the place yesterday, the Dhaka Tribune spoke to several flat owners of Bilkis Villa, a residential building situated right in front of the collapsed road.
“The road would not have collapsed if lake developers took protective measures before pumping water from the lake,” said one of the home owners, seeking anonymity.
“The pumping of water caused the water level of the lake to go down; as a result the road collapsed without any protection,” he said, expressing concerns about the safety of the surrounding buildings.
But the director of the development project told the Dhaka Tribune that no nearby buildings were under any risk at the moment.
“We have already visited the project area and directed the contractors to take immediate steps to fill up the gap left by the subsided road,” Monowarul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune.
Asked whether contractors had taken any preventive safety measures beforehand, the project director said it was not possible to set up protective measures throughout the entire stretch of the lake. But he added that by the time the project ends, the roads would be strong enough.
However, the Dhaka Tribune found that cracks caused by Friday’s collapse have extended as far as the entrance of Bilkis Villa.
When approached, a person working with the contractor company claimed that the crack posed no threat to the building. However, he refused to disclose his name.
On Friday, the chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), GM Zainal Abedin, said he suspected the road had been constructed after filling up parts of the lake. “The truth can be known after reviewing documents,” he said.
After repeated delays, Rajuk only recently started work on the Tk4.10 crore lake beautification project.
On July 6, 2010, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council approved the three-year plan, which was scheduled to begin in July 2010 and end by June 2013.
But time and time again, the plans had been pushed back because of interference from land grabbers in the area.