Dhaka: While the nation mourning successive building collapse and house-fire tragedies in the capital, a high-rise in the city’s Shantinagar area Saturday exposed cracks and sent inmates into scrambles for exit.
“Panicked at the sight of the breaches on some floors of the Concord Grand Tower, hundreds of inmates rushed out of their flats onto the street,” says a firsthand report from the scene.
Their fears were rather stoked up by people’s traumatic experience of the tragic Begunbari house collapse that killed at least 25 people only five days back and another grim tragedy in quick succession on Thursday night that left 120 people dead and more than as many badly burnt in Nimtoli blaze.
Built by a reputed property developer named Concord Construction and Engineering, the 20-story commercial-cum-residential tower faced the trouble only four years after its construction.
On information, police and RAB forces rushed in and cordoned off the skyscraper in front of the Eastern Plus Market.
Traffic on Shilpacharya Jainul Abedin Road nearby halted for safety risks.
Flat inmates told banaglanews24.com.bd reporter Mohibub Jaman on the scene that they heard a big sound and found cracks at many places of the building at around 12noon.
“As the cracks started getting bigger in size, the frightened inmates came out of their flats in a haste, leaving behind all of their belongings,” said one in a big crowd of onlookers.
Assistant Commissioner of police Anwar Hossain said people of the building were asked to go away from the scene.
A team of experts from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) were called in to identify the fault in building the building while a number of fire-fighting units also drove in.
Over 1,500 people of 200 families live in the massive building—one of a handsome number of high-rises shooting up in the capital city, reportedly without proper planning and monitoring by the government agencies concerned as to whether the builders are doing it by the book.
BDST: 1435 Hrs, 05 June 2010
TA/LY/MUA
