Bangladesh's top apparel business body is moving its headquarters from the multi-storey office building at Dhaka’s Hatirjheel, which was built in violation of the Wetlands Protection Act, to a new building in the capital’s Uttara.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is moving to the new location after losing a legal battle in 2017.
THE BGMEA now says if everything goes according to their plans then its new office building in Uttara will be inaugurated next month.
“We are expecting the prime minister to inaugurate the building on Apr 3,” its President Md Siddiqur Rahman told Bangla Tribune.
BGMEA has told the court that it would vacate the Hatirjheel building by Apr 12.
The building, built about two decades ago, endangered wetlands in Dhaka.
In 1998, then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone of the building. The construction began the same year.
The building was inaugurated in 2006 by Khaleda Zia as prime minister.
The High Court ordered it to be taken down in 2011 as the building was constructed in violation of the law. The Appellate Division in June 2016 upheld the verdict.
As a last-ditch attempt to save its office building, the BGMEA filed a petition for a review of the top court's verdict, which was scrapped on Mar 5, 2017.
In October 2010, the High Court issued a rule asking why the building should not be demolished.
The rule came after a lawyer presented a report carried by an English-language newspaper on the building.
The court had then sought explanation from the secretary of the public works ministry, RAJUK, BGMEA president, district administration and Dhaka metro police commissioner.
In 2011, the High Court ordered the structure to be taken down as it found the building had been constructed in violation of laws meant to protect wetlands.
“The BGMEA Bhaban is like a cancer in the Hatirjheel project and if the building is not taken down immediately, it will infect not just Hatirjheel but the entire Dhaka City,” the court said in its verdict.
It also said ‘the reason behind sparing a certain influential quarter with strong financial backup beyond the reach of the law is completely unacceptable’.
The full verdict was available two years later, when the BGMEA moved the Appellate Division against the ruling.
On Jun 2, 2016, the Supreme Court turned down the petition and upheld the High Court's verdict.