It has been almost six years since the Gulshan Shopping Centre was declared unfit for use and highly vulnerable to fire, but no safety measures were taken by the market authorities.
Amid the vulnerable situation of the seven-storey building, shop owners, traders and workers of the market are still unwilling to leave the market. It has 723 shops and eight staircases.
Finally, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way to demolish the building.
The Supreme Court upheld a High Court order from December last year that ordered the authorities concerned to demolish the centre in the capital's Gulshan-1 area within 30 days.
Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) and others were asked to implement the order.
The Fire Service had marked the shopping centre “risky” due to lack of fire extinguishing system and its dilapidated condition in 2018.
Here is a brief timeline of declaring the market risky to the demolition order.
Declared unfit
Fire Service officials inspected the market in 2017 and issued a letter to the market authorities to ensure fire safety.
They declared the building unfit for use on June 11, 2018.
A Fire Service team visited the market again in June 2021 and saw no improvement.
Then they declared it “highly risky” and asked the DNCC authorities to shut it down.
On May 28, 2023, Fire Service officials visited the shopping centre and found 10 fire hazards in the building.
On June 8, 2023, DNCC officials visited the market and asked owners to leave it. The owners sought time till July 30.
Later, a DNCC mobile court sealed off the market on July 13, 2023, triggering protests.
Protests staged by traders
Traders of the shopping centre staged a demonstration blocking the road after a mobile court sealed off the shopping complex over safety concerns on July 13, 2023.
Filing of a writ petition
In July 2023, two companies named “Bani Chitra” and “Chalchchitra” filed a writ petition seeking an order to demolish the market.
On December 14, 2023, the High Court ordered the demolition of the shopping centre as the owners failed to ensure fire safety in the building.
High fire risk
A survey of “Gulshan Shopping Centre” in 2018 showed that the electric wires on each floor were faulty, and the mobile servicing, hardware, and watch servicing shops on the ground floor were at greatest risk.
The same goes for the second floor, and only the sixth floor was equipped with a smoke detector.
The situation has not improved significantly since then.
Although each floor has fire extinguishers, “Gulshan Shopping Centre” is nonetheless a fire risk, authorities say.
