The buildings of Labaid Cardiac Hospital and Concord Arcadia Shopping Mall are next to one another. After Concord Arcadia began operation in 2002, Labaid bought hundreds of shops and then expanded the hospital’s operation on the third and fourth floors of the market.

The market traders and shop owners’ association say that Labaid is constructing a hospital disregarding the design of RAJUK.

Since large portion of the market is part of a hospital, buyers are losing interest to shop there, resulting in loss in trade. On Jan 21, a clash took place between the traders and the hospital authority and there was noticeable vandalism.

President of Concord Arcadia Shopping Mall Owners’ Association, Sanaul Huq Niru, added, “As per RAJUK plan and declaration of the developer, from first to fourth floor was earmarked for central air conditioned market while the fifth and sixth floors were for office. But Labaid authority bought 102 shops and then demolished parts of the third, fourth and fifth floors to connect with the main hospital.”

A shop owner of the market said, “The market is slowly dying out, the number of buyers has fallen and we are facing loss.”

No one from Labaid wanted to talk on the issue and an SMS inquire did not yield any response.

ADC of DMP for Dhanmondi, Abdulla Kafi said, “There has been a rift between the hospital authority and the traders for some time which resulted in a clash on Jan 21 and both sides lodged cases; currently, an investigation is underway."