A probe committee constituted by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), accused the Rana Plaza owner and the owners of the five factories that were housed in the building for the incident that killed more than 1,120 people in April.
The apex apparel trade body also held responsible the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, Savar municipal corporation and Rajdhani Unnayan Kortipakkha (RAJUK) for the disaster.
“BGMEA has no liability for the Rana Plaza disaster, as we warned the factory and building owners to shut it down a day ahead of the disaster,” said BGMEA President Atiqul Islam while disclosing the inquiry report on Wednesday at a briefing at BGMEA headquarters in the capital’s Karwanbazar area.
According to the report, the committee identified nine reasons including violation of the building plan, which was for a six-storey building but was built as a eight-storey building using sub standard building materials.
Rana Plaza’s pillar capacity was 2300 pound per square inch (PSI), though it was supposed to be a minimum of 3500 PSI. Moreover, the PSI for a nine-storey building should be even more than that, said SA Mannan Kochi, head of the probe committee.
Reading out the probe report at the press conference today, SA Mannan Kochi, also the first vice president of BGMEA, said the building was heavily overloaded by the number of generators, air conditioning systems, boilers, various machineries, raw materials for five garment factories and a huge stock of readymade garments.
This huge load weakened the building, the report said.
The committee recommended bringing the building owner Sohel Rana under the legal framework for violating the building code and misinforming the workers and factory owners, local administrations.
It also recommended bringing factory owners to book for opening factories even after BGMEA issued warning after developing cracks.
“We urge the government to take legal action against concerned officials of Savar municipality and department of inspection for factories and establishments for the violation,” said Kochi.
The BGMEA formed the committee on April 28 to probe the incident and asked it to submit the report in 10 days.
However, the report was disclosed after 59 days of the disaster.
At least 1,130 people, mostly female apparel workers, were killed in Rana Plaza collapse at Savar on April 24.
Rana Plaza housed five apparel factories – Ether Tex Limited, New Wave Bottoms Limited, New Wave Style Limited, Phantom Apparels Limited, and Phantom Tac Limited – employing about 4,000 workers, a shopping mall and a bank branch.
