Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury Thursday gave the order to suspend the construction of a television station inside the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
She passed the directive in order for the authorities to examine whether the structure would violate the original design of architect Louis I Kahn.
The immediate past authorities of the parliament secretariat okayed the construction of the TV station at the northern gate of the parliament building.
Architects and experts have claimed that the structure would obstruct ventilation inside the building, one of the heritage sites of the country’s capital city.
“I have ordered for suspending the work. We will review whether the structure is a violation of the original master plan of the building,” the speaker told the Dhaka Tribune at her office after visiting the construction site.
Dhaka Tribune published a story on June 23 about the possible violation of the original design by the construction of the TV station.
The speaker said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a meeting of the Parliament Commissionon June 2 showed reservations about building any additional structuresthat might hurt the original design.
The successive authorities of the parliament have constructed many structures inside the 9-storey building flouting the original master plan. Many small structures have been built inside the building choking the air ventilation outlets.
The previous BNP-led government in 2002 constructed the houses for the speaker and the deputy speaker inside the building, ignoring protests from civil society groups.
The High Court on June 21, 2004, declared all structures beyond Kahn’s plan illegal, asking the government to declare the building a national heritage site.
The erstwhile military government of Ayub Khan in 1959, decided to set up a second capital of the state in Dhaka and selected American architect Louis Isodore Kahn for building a parliament building.
Construction began in 1961 at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.
After Kahn’s demise, his associate Henry N Palmbamm finished the construction of the building in 1981.
