City Centre safe for use: Probe body
FE Report | Thursday, 26 June 2008
An enquiry committee has declared the under-construction 37-storey City Centre in Motijheel safe for use and recommended restart in construction of the high-rise that had developed several cracks on its brick walls.
The 5-member committee led by Zoynul Abedin, a professor of the civil engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), submitted Wednesday its report to the Dhaka City Corporation that owns the building.
"It should be noted that the cracked brick walls are not part of the main structure and hence can be removed or replaced any time. Cracks in these brick walls also do not indicate any distress slabs, are clearly explained and also do not indicate any distress to the main structure," the enquiry committee said in its report.
"We observed that there are cracks at six locations in total as indicated in the plan. The cracks have been found on temporary and hollow brick walls," it said.
It suggested removal or replacement of the cracked brick walls as they were not the part of the main structure. The cracks in the brick walls also did not indicate any distress in the main structure, the committee added.
March 29 last, the City Centre developed several cracks in two of its boundary walls creating panic and forcing the inmates to vacate their offices located in the building.
The building houses offices of banks and private companies, including Standard Chartered, HSBC banks and Grameenphone.
DCC mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka constituted the 5-member enquiry committee on the same day for investigation.
In its report the enquiry committee accused the DCC of not assisting it properly during the investigation and suggested recruitment of a DCC engineer to oversee the construction.
Construction of the multi-storey City Centre, a project involving Tk 1.0 billion, was scheduled to be complete by the end of this year.
Nearly 80 per cent construction work of the 37-storey modern structure has already been completed.
The 5-member committee led by Zoynul Abedin, a professor of the civil engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), submitted Wednesday its report to the Dhaka City Corporation that owns the building.
"It should be noted that the cracked brick walls are not part of the main structure and hence can be removed or replaced any time. Cracks in these brick walls also do not indicate any distress slabs, are clearly explained and also do not indicate any distress to the main structure," the enquiry committee said in its report.
"We observed that there are cracks at six locations in total as indicated in the plan. The cracks have been found on temporary and hollow brick walls," it said.
It suggested removal or replacement of the cracked brick walls as they were not the part of the main structure. The cracks in the brick walls also did not indicate any distress in the main structure, the committee added.
March 29 last, the City Centre developed several cracks in two of its boundary walls creating panic and forcing the inmates to vacate their offices located in the building.
The building houses offices of banks and private companies, including Standard Chartered, HSBC banks and Grameenphone.
DCC mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka constituted the 5-member enquiry committee on the same day for investigation.
In its report the enquiry committee accused the DCC of not assisting it properly during the investigation and suggested recruitment of a DCC engineer to oversee the construction.
Construction of the multi-storey City Centre, a project involving Tk 1.0 billion, was scheduled to be complete by the end of this year.
Nearly 80 per cent construction work of the 37-storey modern structure has already been completed.