Sundarban Hotel still at risk of collapse

The capital's Sundarban Hotel is still at risk due to the collapse of a neighbouring construction site, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon said yesterday.

"The western portions of the hotel and the construction site are still in danger of collapse," he told journalists on the progress of restoration of the site.

Sand is being dumped into the collapsed portions to stabilise the 50-foot deep pit.

The southern, eastern and part of the northern walls of the pit, dug for construction of a 12-storey building, National Bank Limited Twin Tower, caved in on Wednesday and Thursday.

Khokon said action would definitely be taken against those at fault for the incident but the top priority at the moment was to address the impending risk.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), which approved the proposed building, should have carefully monitored the construction on the soft soil of what was previously a marshland, he said.

"They however did not do their job," said the mayor.    

However, he said, the CR Dutta and Panthapath roads that were shut to traffic following the collapse were now stable with sand-filling and would be open to the public today.

Syed Fakhrul Ameen, a professor of civil engineering of Buet, who is head of a three-member probe committee instituted by the city corporation, said the hotel still remained risky at the north-west corner though the eastern hollow part was filled up with sand. It will take three more days to fill up the collapsed portion from east to west, he said.

The collapse of the pit's southern wall, adjoining Sundarban Hotel, triggered fears that the hotel might cave in too, as the hotel's foundation soil subsided following the incident.  

Abdur Rahman, Rajuk board member for planning and acting chairman, said they sued the building owner over evading a mandatory declaration prior to launching the construction work.  

The National Bank Ltd (NBL) in December 2013 obtained Rajuk approval for a 12-story building comprised of two towers and three basement floors on a 64-katha plot, and hired Korean architectural firm Heerim, construction firm Donga, and local MS Construction as contractors to build the towers.

No NBL official was at the site to comment.