In the backdrop of a series of recent fire incidents, city planning authority RAJUK has found several irregularities and lack of fire safety measures in high rise buildings and apartments in the capital on their second day of inspection.
In a special drive on Tuesday (Apr 2), the probe teams found faults in four out of five buildings inspected and all four had design flaws and failed to show proper fire extinguishing facilities.
A RAJUK-4 team, led by its Director Mamun Mia, found lack of fire safety measures at Erector House, Safura Tower, Ataturk Tower, AR Tower, Ahmed Tower, Awal Centre at Banani’s Kamal Ataturk Avenue.
Of the buildings, 15-storied Erector House at 18 Kamal Ataturk Avenue has only one stair but no fire exits. In addition to that the RAJUK team didn’t find any sort of fire extinguishing facilities there.
The scenario was the same at Safura Tower on 20 Kamal Ataturk Avenue.
Meanwhile, 15-storied Ataturk Tower had permission for only 13 floors and the ground floor of the building has been rented to a bank although it was supposed to be empty according to the design.
The authorities at Ahmed Tower and Awal Centre on the other hand failed to produce the designs when the RAJUK team asked for it.
The 28-storied Ahmed Tower had only the permission for 15 floors and most of the floors have been rented out. Construction was still ongoing on the 23rd floor until the RAJUK director stopped it. Similar to the other buildings, it didn’t have adequate fire extinguishing materials.
Awal Tower also violated its building designs as a space has been rented for a sub-station and a generator in its basement.
“We have collected primary information and found faults with almost all the buildings,” said Mamun Mia.
“We found almost every building in the area and noted the primary informations,” said Mamun Mia.
“There is lack of sufficient fire extinguishing measures according to the designs and RAJUK will take necessary actions based on this information,” he added.