The central passport office in the capital’s Agargaon area has become hazardous as several cracks appeared in the building following the installation of a machine readable passport (MRP) processing equipment on its first floor.
An official of the passport office revealed the information during a meeting of the evaluation committee for a project to construct a new, personalised complex for the central passport office, which took place at the Planning Commission on December 3. Arosto Khan, member of the commission, presided over the meeting.
“It is not possible to set up the three other machines because of these cracks. These are heavy machinery and are required to process passports of 600,000 Bangladesh expatriates working in foreign countries, especially the Middle East and Malaysia, by next year,” the official told the Dhaka Tribune, seeking anonymity.
“The situation is also hazardous for the lives of 150 employees who work at the central passport office,” he added.
There is no possible space at the Agargaon office to set up the other three machines, which will hinder the supply of MRPs on time to applicants both home and abroad, according to the meeting’s minutes.
Cracks have appeared on the walls, columns and beams on the first floor of the eight-storey building, and more of them are appearing with the continued use of the MRP machine.
Installed around one and a half years ago, it is used – even on the weekends – to print informations of the passport applicants, both old and new, the official said. “Unless the machine is removed from the building immediately, a big accident may occur – something like the Rana Plaza collapse,” he said.
However, State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal refuted the official’s claim of risks when the Dhaka Tribune contacted him yesterday.
“It is not true and the situation is normal at the passport office. I know that the machine does not even make any sound that could create cracks,” he said.
The passport office will soon be transferred to a Rajuk-alloted plot in Uttara within two years as the central passport office requires more space, the state minister added.
“We have already opened letters of credit to bring machineries and construction materials for this purpose,” he said.
Planning Commission member Arosto Khan told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “If there was anything to be concerned about, the authorities would have moved the office from the building.”
The Department of Immigration and Passports have yet to establish a press at the Agargaon office in order to print passports and maintain the standard of the MRPs, as per the meeting minutes.
The construction of the new passport office – a 10-storey building – will begin this month, with a tentative deadline of completion in December 2016 and an estimated cost of Tk34.47 crore, sources said.
