RAJUK fails to stop misuse of basements in capital’s buildings

Despite the recurrent incidents of fire in the capital often originating from the basements of buildings or aggravated by the stored chemicals in these basements, the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha could not stop the misuse of the basements of buildings.

In the wake of devastating fires, the RAJUK itself conducted a survey and reportedly identified such misuse of basements in 683 buildings in the capital. It inspected 2,204 buildings in eight zones under the city development authority.

The survey found that basements in 750 or over 35 per cent of the buildings inspected are being used for other purposes instead of parking. This is really preposterous.
Is forcing the building owners to go by the building plan and code a difficult task? The RAJUK is the designated organisation to ensure that Dhaka city will be developed in a planned way so that it would not only be aesthetically beautiful but it would be safe from all real and perceived dangers as well as environmentally sustainable.
Besides RAJUK, the two city corporations are there to ensure a balanced development of Dhaka vertically and horisontally. What does hinder the RAJUK to render its duty? The answer however boils down to one word ‘corruption’, because it has laws and manpower to oversee and ensure planned development of the city. But it has failed to do so for this obvious reason.

The RAJUK survey report found that the owners of 1,944 or 88 per cent of the 2,204 surveyed buildings failed to show the approved design during the inspection. In a country like Bangladesh where politics is an absolute mess, the RAJUK can easily get away with this failure of the building owners.
One urban planner has rightly pointed out that the RAJUK wants ‘to cover up its weakness’. This expert pertinently said the RAJUK could check the design from their archive and take action against who deviated from the actual plan. Like any other overseeing bodies, the RAJUK has failed to deliver its duty.
As a result of this failure, massive incidents of fire will continue to occur destroying properties and even life. The RAJUK must be held accountable why buildings are not constructed and used according to their original plan.