A six-storey building has tilted in Dhaka’s Sutrapur, leaving the residents of the neighbourhood panicked and putting at risk a four-storey building next to it, bdnews24.com reports.
Dhaka South City Corporation has evacuated the residents of the two buildings fearing a collapse.
Locals on Friday said the leaning building styled “Haji Bari, Etotuku Basa” with the holding number 47/2 was constructed in 1995 by filling up a ditch.
One of them, requesting anonymity, said they had suspected problems would occur when the owner built two more floors having giving a foundation for a four-storey structure.
The city corporation put up a notice outside the building declaring it risky and asking all to stay away from it.
ABM Aminullah Nuri, chairman of the capitals development authority Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha or RAJUK, said they have constituted a committee to investigate the reason behind the building leaning.
“The path to the entrance of the building is so narrow that it is difficult to even walk,” he said.
Before the building was erected, water used to run through the place, according to him.
RAJUK officials could not contact the owner as she was not present during a visit.
Locals said many of the buildings in the area have more storeys than the plans approved by RAJUK.
“We’re at most risk because we rent flats without seeing building plan and approval while most of the landlords do not live here,” said Mainul Islam, who has been living in a rented flat in the area for a long time.
The RAJUK chairman said 23 teams of the agency, including four mobile courts, work in the capital to identify the buildings made in breach of plan. “They report every month.”