Living with danger

It can hardly be contested that the buildings which were erected in defiance of height restrictions near the airport need to be lowered down to the safety of prescribed ceilings.

The Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAA,B) and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) after having identified 111 buildings as 'risky' took out a court order to demolish the upper stories of some such constructions. Sixty-six of them have been spotted in the most 'vulnerable category; of which, 17 have already lost the unauthorised height.

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Several questions arise out of this absurd situation. The CAA,B and Rajuk are working in tandem now to enforce the building rules out of grave aviation and ground safety concerns, but couldn't they have acted in a coordinated fashion beforehand so as to avert the costly demolition exercise in the first place? Waste of public and private resources is involved in no small measure here.

Principally, whose fault is it? How could the buildings be raised in the dangerous funnel to a height that would expose aircrafts to lethal brushes and the inmates of those houses to mortal dangers? Were the building owners served with timely notices to refrain from the unauthorised vertical construction? A suspicion arises in the public mind as to whether silence of some officials was bought off; otherwise, how is one to explain the buildings coming to height without anybody in authority noticing it or taking a corrective action?

We would like the issue to be addressed by instituting a probe and making the public aware of the outcome of it, so that the people owning land in the area together with the designated oversight bodies are fully sensitised about their respective duties.