The call to relocate the chemical warehouses and stores of flammable and explosive materials from old Dhaka goes unheeded after every tragic accident in the face of public outcry.
A massive fire broke out in a warehouse on the ground floor of a six-storey residential building --Haji Musa Mansion – at Armanitola in the early hours on Friday, leaving at least four people dead and over 30 injured.
This is the latest of tragedies in the old part of Dhaka, where a fire killed at least 124 people on June 3, 2010, and 71 people on February 20, 2019.
Despite the two harrowing fire incidents, respectively in Nimtoli and Chawkbazar areas, the industry ministry, which is responsible to relocate such dangerous chemical warehouses, was found paying lip service.
A ministry official said on Friday that plan of setting up a chemical industrial park at Munshiganj in 2019 has seen 24 per cent physical progress and 33 per cent financial progress.
Despite repeated attempts to connect industry minister, Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun for comments on the latest explosion of chemical and explosive materials at Armanitola, his mobile phone was found switched off.
The chemical warehouse at Armanitola of Old Dhaka was running a business without licenses from Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense and Dhaka South City Corporation, said official.
While contacted ABM Amin Ullah Nuri, Chief Executive Officer of Dhaka South City Corporation, said, “DSCC is one of the stakeholders to relocate chemical warehouses from old Dhaka. Industry ministry deals with the main job of relocating warehouses and stores from old Dhaka to safer and environment-friendly places”.
Replying to a query why unlicensed stores and warehouses are not been sealed off, the CEO said, “We can’t shut their businesses as there are many things involved — people, livelihood, employment etc.”
“The repeated accidents in old Dhaka in chemical stores and warehouses are very unfortunate. On our part, DSCC prepared a list of around two thousand chemical warehouses and stores in old Dhaka and we placed the list to the government. The list now lies in the Department of Explosives for verification”.
“DSCC stopped providing trade licenses to chemical traders in the old part of the capital after the Chawkbazar tragedy in 2019 and the traders of Haji Mansion of Armanitola have no trade license,” he added.
While contacted Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner for Lalbagh Zone Biplob Bijoy Talukdar said, it is not their job to define who are eligible to run a business as there are other organisations to look into the affairs.
“Police have no role to play until someone reports us about the wrongdoing of businessmen. If a criminal case is filed centring the Armanitola accident, police will investigate the affairs and bring the culprits to book,” the DC added.
Soon after the Chawkbazar tragedy, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council initiated a revised project to set up a Chemical Industrial Park at Munshiganj with the cost of Tk 1,615 crore and the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation was assigned to implement the project.
Talking with The Business Post on Friday, Saiful Alam, project director of Munshiganj’s Chemical Industrial Park said, the way the work is rolling by, they are hopeful to implement the project by June 2022.
Saiful, who is also assistant general manager of BSCIC, said land filing, which is a major hurdle in developing a site, has still some issues related to the land.
According to the plan, the Chemical Industrial Park would be set up on some 310 acres of land at Sirajdikhan in Munshiganj and will accommodate some 4,000 chemical industries and godowns from old Dhaka. The park houses 2,154 industrial plots which will create some 50,000 jobs if the project progresses as per the plan.
After the Armanitola accident, Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense opened an investigation into the deadly accident, said deputy director of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense Devashis Bordhon.
Talking with the journalists at the accident site, he said, “These chemical warehouses were running without approval from us. All the chemical stores and warehouses are illegal and there was no approval from any authority”.
The six-storey residential building, known as Haji Musa Mansion, had many chemicals stored on the ground floor; there are residential arrangements from the second floor to the sixth floor, said Devashis.
