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Download PDF The under construction 37-storey City Centre at Motijheel has developed cracks in its ground floor walls, prompting police yesterday to evacuate people who live or work in the building and the adjacent ones.
The cracks in a front sidewall were first noticed about one and a half months ago. Suddenly, they started widening yesterday afternoon, causing panic in the commercial hub. Besides, a side wall has curved in precariously, security guards and construction workers told The Daily Star.
Later in the afternoon, police marked the site with yellow tape and closed off the road between Shapla Chattar (roundabout) and Dainik Bangla Intersection as precautions.
The high-rise is being developed by Belhasa Accom JV Limited, a concern of Orion Group of Obaidul Karim, a businessman infamous for Oriental Bank scam.
It is designed to be an office block-cum-multi-storey car park. Construction work is scheduled to be completed by next month.
So far, 28 storeys have been built. Though top most storeys have yet to be completed, a couple of floors have been rented out to different companies including HSBC, Grameenphone and Standard Chartered Bank.
Contacted, top officials of Belhasa Accom claimed the cracks are ‘ordinary ones’ and ‘not at all risky’.
“The cracks are in the temporary walls and they won’t affect the main structure,” said AKM Nurul Islam, project director from Belhasa.
The building is well known to people for its catchy commercial on television. A huge crowd of onlookers gathered at the site to see the cracks. The police and firemen struggled to make them move away. Earlier they evacuated offices housed in City Centre and neighbouring buildings.
In addition to office spaces, the high-rise is planned to have a convention centre, a restaurant, a business lounge and a gymnasium. Ten of its floors would be dedicated to car parking while a helipad built on the rooftop.
Asked, the Belhasa project director could not explain the reasons for the cracks. Locals alleged that he had directed the construction workers to hammer down the affected parts of the walls to cover up the cracks.
“Yes, I had given them the direction and it was not risky for the building,” said Nurul Islam. “The building will be able to withstand even a tornado of speed up to 240 kilometres per hour and an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter Scale,” he observed.
Workers of the Belhasa were trying to create barrier so that newsmen could not enter the building and take picture.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Nayeem Ahmed and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Chief Engineer Colonel Asfaqul Islam and some other engineers from the DCC visited the site.
“At this moment, I cannot say anything before construction and weight experts examine the cracks,” said Colonel Ashfaq.
The DMP commissioner said the law enforcers have been directed to keep 280 feet-radius around the building sealed off.
People who have purchased space in the building for office and commercial use rushed to the spot. They were quite anxious about the developments. “We have paid Tk 44 lakh in advance for 1,700 square feet on the 26th floor,” said Abul Hashem, an employee from Rajanigandha Shipping.
“I don’t know what’s awaiting us,” he added.
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