RAJUK starts demolishing Rangs Bhaban

---

Some 350 workers wearing red shirts began demolishing the Rangs Bhaban in the city Friday morning at the instruction of RAJUK, a day after the owners of the building lost their legal battle in the Supreme Court, report agencies.
The demolition work started at 8.0 am from the eighth floor of the 22-storied building near Bijoy Sarani under the supervision of magistrate Emdadul Dastagir of Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakkha (RAJUK) amidst quiet protests by executives of different companies that they were not given enough time to remove their expensive equipment and valuable goods.
In the first phase of the demolition, 175 workers equipped with hammers and other tools were engaged in removing doors and windows, glasses and furniture.
RAJUK chief engineer Shah Alam told reporters that it would take some 120 days to complete the demolition of all the 16 floors above the sixth floor declared illegal by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The authorities posted 300 police and RAB members to maintain security in and around the Rangs building as hundreds of people were seen watching the demolition of a large part of the tower built at a cost of Tk 7.0 billion.
Abdur Rouf Chowdhury, chairman of the Rangs Group of industries, is out of the country. Abdur Rahman, a general manager of the Rangs Group, told newsmen that 30 companies with 35,000 officials and employees used to operate from the Rangs building.
"We are all devastated mentally by the court's decision," he said in a pensive mood.
Like Rahman, other executives of different banks and companies housed in the Rangs building expressed their grievances that they were not allowed enough time to shift their offices, costly electronic equipment and furniture.
Besides the many offices of the Rangs Group, the building housed on-line banking office, Bank Asia, Bank Scotia, and IT and trading companies.
The RAJUK workers will demolish the construction beyond the 6th floor in two shifts a day. Some 14 teams of workers were formed under RAJUK officials to destroy the illegal construction from the seventh floor to the 22nd floor.
The number of workers will be increased after couple of days when they would start breaking the concrete structures like walls and floors.
Earlier, officials of RAJUK, DESA and WASA entered the building at about 7:45 am and ordered the demolition at 8.0 am.
The officials, however, took care that valuable items of different companies are not damaged and extended help to company employees to move their goods to safer places.
In the second stage of the demolition that began at 3.0pm, more 175 workers entered the building and started demolishing the much-talked about Rangs Bhaban.
Major parts of the Rangs Bhaban stood just like a skeleton, stripped of glittering glass walls and other pricey interiors.
The floors were strewn with glass shards and broken flower vases.
Rajuk workers stripped different floors of glass sidings, but the main structure remained untouched.
When contacted, RAJUK chief engineer Shah Alam told UNB that the demolition work would continue till 10pm Friday. The RAJUK authorities brought generator to facilitate the demolition work after the dusk.
The demolition work will again start at 8.0am today (Saturday).
But magistrate Dastagir told the independent news agency that they would stop the demolition work for the first day at around 6.0 pm.
Expressing satisfaction on the first day's demolition work, he said: "All kinds of internal structures like partition walls, false ceilings, doors, windows and glass panes have already been demolished."
During the breaking of glass panes on the front side of the building, the authorities closed the VIP road in front of Rangs Bhaban to all traffic for half an hour from 12:45 pm to ensure public safety.
Residents of the nearby area demanded of the authorities to see to it that they do not face any problem when RAJUK construct the proposed link road following the demolition of the building.
The headquarters of Bank Asia located on the eighth floor of the building was left untouched for the time being as the bank officials were busy separating the metal vault from the wall to take it to its Motijheel branch.
A senior official of the bank, Khalequzzaman, told bdnews24.com that the vault would be relocated to Motijheel.
However, the caretaker government will not take any action against the RAJUK officials involved in the "illegal" approval of the 22-storey Rangs Bhaban, according to a government adviser.
When asked whether any action would be taken against the persons involved in the Rangs Bhaban approval, housing and public works adviser Mainul Hosein Thursday night told bdnews24.com by telephone: "The present government will do only the work it must. Let the Bhaban be demolished first. Then we will see. However, no action is being taken right now against the persons involved."
Although Rangs Bhaban was a risk to air traffic due to its proximity to Tejgaon Airport, Rangs authorities got the design of the building approved by "managing" the people in Rajuk, an official of the city development agency alleged.
The official also said the Rangs authorities had the blessings of the then policymakers of the BNP government.
Another report adds: The government will build a link road from Bijoy Sarani to Tejgaon-Mohakhali under a Tk 1.20 billion project, an adviser said Thursday.
Work on the road will start after the government acquires land and demolishes the remaining six floors of Rangs Bhaban that are to still stand following demolition of 16 upper floors, now in progress.
The link road is meant to rid the city of traffic jams to a great extent.
Housing and public works adviser Mainul Hosein Thursday said: "The government will acquire the Rangs Bhaban land for constructing a link road."
A total of 3.5 acres of land will be required for construction of the road, two acres of which will come from private owners. The government has 1.5 acres of its own land. The land acquisition will cost Tk 850 million, which is 70 per cent of the total project cost.
There are 63 houses, 35 of them tin sheds, from behind Rangs Bhaban to Tejgaon industrial area.
It has been learnt that 34 houses are on privately-owned land. The government will acquire the lands, and, as in the case of Rangs Bhaban, the owners will be given compensation.
Besides, the government will demolish all the houses constructed without Rajuk approval.
The project will cut traffic jam on the road in front of the Chief Adviser's Office. The vehicles coming from the Gulshan area will use the new road and go directly to Mirpur.