A home ministry report has accused Khulna-based developer, Tanmoy Housing, of violating building codes while constructing Savar’s Rana Plaza, which collapsed on April 24, killing 1,129 people and putting authorities in a debacle over safety standards in Bangladeshi garment factories.
The report was discussed in a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee yesterday.
It said Tanmoy Housing and Abdul Khaleque, father of Rana Plaza’s owner and alleged Jubo League leader Sohel Rana, signed a deal on September 12, 2003. According to the deal, the developer was to construct the commercial complex up to five-storeys on a foundation that would support atleast 10 floors.
However, they started work in 2004 without proper clearance from related authorities and simultaneously submitted an application to the Savar Municipality, seeking a permit to build a six-storey shopping complex. The municipality approved the layout plan without shouldering any of the responsibility regarding infrastructural integrity.
“The developer cancelled the contract after a row with Abdul Khaleque after construction of the second floor,” a copy of the report obtained by the Dhaka Tribune read.
Abdul Khaleque took over construction work and completed construction until the sixth floor without employing any other developer. He instead employed inefficient local engineers.
In 2008, Khaleque again applied to the Savar Municipality, this time seeking permission to construct four additional floors on top of the existing six-storeys. The municipality once again refused to shoulder any responsibility for infrastructural integrity and only approved the layout for it.
Another two and a half floors were built on top of the existing structure, based on the approval. The report said that the landowner, Khaleque, and his son, Sohel Rana, constructed the building using their influence without taking required permission from the city development authority, Rajuk. They also leased the complex, which was meant to be a commercial market, to garment factories to earn more from rent.
Mujibul Haque, a Jatiya Party lawmaker and member of the committee, told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting: “We only discussed the report but did not make any recommendations on the issue [of the developer].”
The report also claimed that a local designer, Abdul Razzaq, tested the building along with some public servants when the building developed crack on April 23 and gave it safety clearance. However, it did not name the public servants.