Faulty pilings cause houses to crumble

Faulty pilings for construction of a building at Nakhalpara in Tejgaon have caused four tin-roofed houses to collapse and nearby buildings and streets to develop chinks, reports bdnews24.com. The houses crumbled in the small hours of Saturday due to the fault in the pilings of Impulse Medical College and Hospital building near private television station Channel i building. Several other residential buildings are at risk of collapse due to the obvious disturbance. Fire Service personnel at the scene have asked residents of some neighbouring houses to move out. Troops have been called in to sandbag the site of the under-construction building from further collapse. Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) has opened investigation and asked a three-strong committee to submit a report in a week. Rajuk and Fire Service officials blamed faulty pilings of the under-construction building for the cave-in. Physician Ali Zaher al-Amin owns the building. Khaleda Yesmin, a director of Impulse Medical College and Hospital, said Islamic Trade Consortium Limited (ITCL) was constructing the installation. Cracks also developed in the north-west portion of the under-construction building which was being constructed on plot 304E, Tejgaon. A makeshift tin-roofed house of the construction workers collapsed with a huge bang around 12:30am, leaving four injured. The other three tin-roofed houses and a concrete street, north to the construction site, crumbled around 4am. An army unit, originally deployed in nearby Hatirjheel Project area, started sandbagging the buildings around midday. Fire service men were helping them. Project Director Colonel Abu Sayeed told reporters they are earth-filling the hole and then will stack it with sandbags. Rajuk Chairman Mohammad Nurul Huda said this will take around 24 hours to finish. Fire Service Director M M Matiur Rahman said 150 trained volunteers will join the disaster management operation today (Sunday). Director-General Abu Nayeem Mohammed Shahidullah told reporters at the scene in the morning big preparations are needed to immediately protect the nearby buildings. Rajuk Chairman Huda told reporters the incident occurred due to faulty soil test and piling work. The building owner, engineers and designers will be sued. Khaleda Yesmin said ITCL was constructing the building. No one was found at its Dilkusha head office after the incident Shafikul Islam, an Ansar member on duty in the area, told the news agency that a makeshift tin-roofed house of the construction workers collapsed with a huge bang around 12:30am, leaving four injured. They were Ali Hossain, 'Rustam', 'Baker' and 'Bashir'. Ali Hossain told the news agency: "We tried to come out of the house as soon as we heard the sound, but the house crumbled before all of us could exit safely." They were admitted into Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Three tin-roofed houses were found to have crumbled into the hole dug for pilings. There are a good number of establishments, including a six-storey building to the north and another five-storey to the west of that building. Abdul Mannan Patwari, owner of the six-storey building, told the news agency, "The construction started six months ago. They dug deep into the ground. We opposed, but they did not listen to us." Fire Service and Civil Defence director (administration and audit) M Abdus Salam told reporters: "Gas pipelines of several houses have been crushed due to the incident" "Residents of the area have been requested not to use gas for security reasons." "As the adjacent buildings have become vulnerable, we have requested all residents to get ready for a quick evacuation," he added. Residents have vacated at least 13 buildings around the Impulse building since then.