The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has vowed to spare no one, with its eviction drive to free Buriganga River banks from encroachment currently in full throttle.
A number of Illegal structures, erected by influential people including political leaders, parliament members and even a government body, have already been taken down.

With the illegal structures owned or maintained by influential people torn down, other land grabbers have received the message; BIWTA intended to convey: ‘no one will be spared.’

Sources say some of the grabbers are lobbying the government higher-ups in an attempt to protect their illegal structures at the riverbanks. However, BIWTA said, whoever the structures belong to, all illegal buildings will be demolished.

The eviction drive, which kicked off on Jan 29 and is set to continue until Feb 19, aims at freeing both sides of the River from Sadarghat to Gabtoli for a planned project. The BIWTA will conduct the drive on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

In the first three days of the raids, nearly one kilometre has been freed from encroachment with multi-storied buildings including one belonging to Dhaka-7 MP Haji Mohammad Salim, bulldozed to the ground.

The 445 illegal structures removed so far at the Kamrangirchar and Kholamora Gudaraghat area  includes a building built by the state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL).,

On Jan 31, the third day of the drive, about two dozens of sawmills were taken down. The ongoing drive plans to remove over 900 structures including 56 high-rise buildings.

On Friday (Feb 1), part of a seven-storied building at the Gudaraghat area was demolished. Samir Uddin, who works as the building’s caretaker, told Bangla Tribune, “When the building was constructed up-to two stories, BIWTA people warned those involved in the construction not to proceed any further. But, the owner didn’t pay heed to those warnings.”

“We never thought such a big building will be demolished,” he added.

Sirajul Islam, a Khadem at a local mosque told Bangla Tribune, “We have never seen an eviction drive quite like what we have witnessed in the past couple of days. A number of buildings belonging to influential people were torn down.”

“We hope that this drive will continue,” he added.

Meanwhile, the ruling party MP Selim tried to get the shipping minister’s support, to save his building from demolition. The minister, however, did not help, according to sources.

On the ongoing drive, BIWTA Joint Director AKM Arif Uddin told Bangla Tribune, “From what we saw in the ground, the original list of 906 illegal structures is likely to become longer.”

Uddin also said the illegal structures included factories and some industrial establishments.

When asked if they were facing any obstacles, in running the drive, he said, “It’s not our concern. Our plan is to take down illegal structures, regardless who own those.”

“No one will be spared,” he reiterated.

BIWTA has undertaken a Tk 80 million project which aims to construct walkway on both sides of the river and make the river pollution-free.

“Once the eviction is done, the project will enter implementation phase,” said the BIWTA official.