Affected shop owners of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) market at Gulshan-1 point their fingers at Metro Group for Saturday’s devastating fire at their businesses that caused a loss of Tk100 crore.
Aiming to build a new establishment on the piece of land on which the market is located, the DNCC authorities had floated a tender in 2010.
Traders reiterated that the authorities did not discuss the matter with them before floating the tender, which was won by Metro Group, a local conglomerate.
Even after the 2017 fire that led to a staggering Tk500 crore loss, they held the business giant responsible for the incident.
Deen Mohammad, president of the shop owners’ association at DNCC kitchen market, said they were not opposing the DNCC move to construct a multi-storey facility on the land covering 7.5 bighas.
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“But we suspect that Metro Group might be behind the arson since its authorities were not assuring us of rehabilitation in the new building once it will be constructed,” he said.
When tried by The Dhaka Tribune over phone for their comment, none of the officials concerned of Metro Group responded.
Another shop owner, Md Abu Bakkar, said the latest blaze was the result of a plot by them (Metro Group).
“We repeatedly asked them to confirm us in black and white that we will be allotted shops in the proposed building, but to no avail,” Bakkar added.
The shop owner also wondered over the delay in finding out how the 2017 fire originated.
Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif on Saturday said the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) market would turn into a modern shopping mall.
The Awami League leader said president and the general secretary of the DNCC Kitchen Market Traders' Association were also supporting his move.
