Blds being jerrybuilt around capital

A large number of buildings go mushrooming in and around the capital city unauthorised or without RAJUK approval and, as its fatal fallout, accidents and house collapse are on the rise, experts and officials said.
According to BUET findings, nearly 35 per cent of the buildings are being built sans approval of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkhya (RAJUK) and also without involvement of engineering expertise.
In a latest instance, cracks developed in a four-storey building at Siddikbazar in the city that triggered fresh panic among residents of the mega-city Dhaka as the bizarre Rana Plaza tragedy still haunts many minds.
"More than 35 per cent of the buildings in and around Dhaka City have been constructed without authorisation from RAJUK," said Prof. Mehedi Ahmed Ansary of the Department of Civil Engineering of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
According to the RAJUK rules, he said, "It is mandatory to take RAJUK's approval to build any building in the city and the DAP area. But owners of most of the buildings did it without taking authorisation."
He further told The Financial Express that the government has got many regulatory authorities to secure public interest but their activities are "very poor".
As a result, the engineering and technology professor views, building accidents are taking place in the capital, as also in the country at large.
Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain recently placed statistics in parliament that there are around 4,000 buildings in Dhaka city which have been constructed in violation of the designs approved by RAJUK.
There are 1.2 million buildings in the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) zone of RAJUK: 0.5 million inside the city and 0.7 million in the neighborhoods.
For building construction in the city RAJUK approval is mandatory. Outside the city, buildings have to be constructed with the approval from the local government authorities as union chairman and municipal authorities.
In neither case has there been appropriate compliance with the building rules or code, it is alleged.        
Prof Dr Md Mujibur Rahman, former chairman of Civil Engineering Department of BUET, said: "We have observed that during construction of a large number of buildings, architecture or engineer remains absent although their supervision is very important."
He noted that RAJUK approval is mandatory, but being avoided. As a result, several times many buildings have developed cracks in the country.
Shaikh Abdul Mannan, Director of RAJUK, echoed such views. "It is absolutely right--many buildings are being constructed by violating the RAJUK'S building code. There has been no involvement of expert either."
He said they have made a list of illegal buildings in the city and are going to take action against the owners of unauthorised buildings.
In recent times, he added, some of the illegal buildings' owners have given fines to RAJUK and got their project plans approved.