City road collapses as building site caves in
Rajuk official points finger at faulty design
A portion of Circuit House Road at the capital's Ramna caved in when the pilings at an adjacent construction site collapsed yesterday, causing panic among the residents of surrounding buildings especially the highrises. Photo: Rashed Shumon
A portion of Circuit House road in the city collapsed into a 33-foot foundation ditch yesterday morning when underground piling work on the site of an under-construction nearby building caved in. Several cracks developed on the road opposite the office of the deputy commissioner (traffic south) at around 8:00am while an excavator was digging out mud for the foundation work of the 10-storey building on plot no 5. Two hours after the digging began, the concrete pillars of the road protection piling collapsed on the excavator, burying it under mud and debris from the collapsed four-foot of the 24-foot wide road. The operator of the excavator, however, managed to save himself. No casualty has been reported. But local people living in nearby high-rises buildings went into a state of panic. Sheikh Abdul Mannan, member planning of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), said a total of 33-foot of earth was dug up for the foundation work while pillars were set under 51-foot of piling which was not adequate for such a high-rise structure. The owner of the under-construction building, Monzurur Rahman, obtained approval from Rajuk on July 25 last year, said another official of Rajuk. But he did not inform Rajuk about site inspection before starting construction work, mandatory even after such approval is granted. Though there is a rule about informing Rajuk of construction work 15 days before it commences, in this case the owner did not inform the building authorities, said Khalekuzzaman Chowdhury, authorised officer-4 of Rajuk. "We could not reach the owner till 6:00pm as his mobile set was switched off," he said. All the workers fled the site immediately after the accident. Neither the owner nor his family members were to be seen when this correspondent visited the site at noon. A visit to the area in the afternoon revealed that more cracks had developed in the middle of the remaining portion of the road, which construction experts say could make other big structures nearby vulnerable. “The buildings around the accident site could be at risk if proper measures are not taken,” said a former chief engineer of Rajuk seeking anonymity. The decades old two-storey building is just 10-foot away from the nearest cracks in the middle of Circuit House road and remains at most risk, he said. Police blocked off the road just after the incident and had to wait for six hours for the crisis management team of Rajuk to arrive on the scene. As there was no crisis management unit of Rajuk, they had to depend and wait for the help of the army to take measures to stop a further collapse, said a Rajuk official. Later, a team of army engineering corps reached the spot at around 2:45pm and started working to protect it from further collapse by dumping sand bags at the site. When asked, member planning of Rajuk Sheikh Abdul Mannan said the collapse of foreshore piling and a portion of the road might have occurred due to faulty design or construction failure or both. Member, development, of Rajuk, Mahbubul Alam, said Rajuk was taking safety measures to avoid any further collapse. A team of Wasa went to the spot and switched off the water supply lines, which had leaked during the collapse. While visiting the site, DMP commissioner Benazir Ahmed blamed the construction workers for their negligence and said the police would take legal action against them.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments