Freeing TuragBIWTA, admin demolish 10 Agrovita structures

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) along with the Dhaka district administration yesterday demolished 10 makeshift structures of a private business, Agrovita Limited, to free the river Turag in Deur Mouja in the capital.

The land claimant encroached upon around two bighas of the river beyond the foreshore demarcation pillars with 10 semi-concrete structures meant for a picnic site and a reinforced concrete wall, said Shaid Ullah, an acting BIWTA joint director at the Dhaka port.  

They could not remove the wall and had to postpone the second day of the two-day drive due to a court ruling, he said.

"The land claimant brought a High Court ruling barring the eviction," said Faruq Hossain, Savar assistant commissioner for land, acting as the drive's magistrate.   

He said they would place the elaborate HC directions of 2009 for river reclamation to vacate the order barring the eviction.

The 38-kilometre Turag river, stretching from Kholamora to Teramukh across Tongi, has over the years been shrunk to virtually a trickle under the very nose of the district administration, BIWTA, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, Department of Environment and police.

The Agrovita authorities could not be contacted for their version.