The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) is planning to set up eight zonal offices for approval of plan and supervising development. Of the eight offices, four would be located in the city’s Uttara, Gulshan, Dhanmondi and Mirpur areas, while the remaining four would be established at Gazipur, Savar, Narayanganj and Keraniganj, said Sk. Abdul Mannan, member (planning) of RAJUK. Talking to The Independent, he said that with a view to establishing the zonal offices, RAJUK had planned to increase the number of authorised officers, assistant officers and building inspectors by eight times.
The RAJUK official hoped that the appointment rules would be finalised in the next week and the appointment process by the end of this year.
RAJUK currently had only four authorised officers, four assistant authorised officers and 40 building inspectors against 60 posts to cover the vast areas of the authority under the detailed area plan (DAP), which had been approved in 2010, he said.
The official also said that after the completion of the recruitment process, the number of authorised officers would be 24, assistant authorised officers 48 and building inspectors 288. Besides, a total of 24 chief building inspectors would be appointed, he added.
He mentioned that earlier the DAP areas were divided into eight zones but there was no office and necessary manpower to deal with building planning and controlling of development.
Besides, he said an authorised officer and an assistant authorised officer had to look after two zones, and there were only five building inspectors in each zone of the capital development authority.
“We hope that after establishing eight zonal offices in the city and its outskirts, RAJUK will be able to monitor the irregularities in the construction of buildings, particularly in the suburb areas”, he said.
Another top RAJUK official said the government had to amend the Local Government (Municipality) Law 2010, to curtail the local government’s power to approve plan and design of buildings in the RAJUK periphery, to avoid tragedies like the collapse of the Rana Plaza at Savar.
He said RAJUK had already sent a proposal to the ministry to make necessary changes to the existing law.
According to RAJUK sources, nearly 90 per cent of the buildings in the outskirts of the capital, including Savar, had been built illegally or without the authorisation of RAJUK.
After the DAP was approved in 2010, a vast area of Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur districts, particularly Savar, Ashulia and Tongi, came under the purview of RAJUK.
Under the RAJUK rules, it is mandatory to take RAJUK’s approval to construct any building in the city and the DAP areas, but the owners of most of the buildings built in the suburbs of the capital did not obtain authorisation.
Meanwhile, experts said many of the building owners, who did not have RAJUK’s approval, had used substandard materials to construct their buildings, and in most cases they built high-rise buildings on roads, canals, wetlands and khas lands without conducting soil tests, thus endangering their buildings.
-With The Independent input
