Illegal restaurants in Dhaka’s posh areas to be evicted soon; schools, colleges, hospitals get 3 months to move

An eviction drive will soon begin to clear hotels and restaurants illegally set up in Dhaka’s Gulshan, Banani, and Baridhara residential areas, the housing and public works minister has said.

But schools, colleges, and hospitals build illegally in the same posh areas of the capital will be given three months to shift, Mosharraf Hossain told bdnews24.com on Thursday.
 
“We’ll give them a three-month notice. The unapproved establishments will have to relocate within that time.”
 
The government last week decided to shut down schools, colleges, hotels, restaurants and hospitals operating without permission in Dhaka’s Gulshan residential area in view of the July 1 terrorist attack on a cafe there.
 
The housing minister suggested the educational institutions and hospitals move to RAJUK’s Uttara and Purbachal projects and said his ministry would consider giving them land if they wanted.
 
“Schools, colleges and hospitals are there to do business. They profit from the business, but they need to shift. We’ll consider their plea if they apply for vacant RAJUK plots.”
 
Mosharraf Hossain said his ministry would take a specific and elaborate decision on the eviction of these establishments.
 
“But the drive will commence very soon. Business institutions will have to be moved from the residential areas. No one will be spared in this matter.”
 
The minister emphasised that no business establishments would be allowed outside a designated commercial zone in Gulshan.
 
Meanwhile, RAJUK official Abdur Rahman told bdnews24.com they had already prepared a list of institutions and establishments set up with permission in residential buildings in Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas.
 
The list will be placed at Sunday’s housing ministry meeting, he added.
 
RAJUK’s planning and development department member Rahman said, “We have brought all kinds of establishments there in our list. But hotels and restaurants are a matter of priority. We’ll begin with them.”
 
The Cabinet committee on law and order decided on July 10 to shut down unlicensed schools, colleges, restaurants, and hospitals in Gulshan’s residential and adjacent areas.
 
The move came after 22 people—20 hostages and two police officers—were killed at an upscale cafe at Gulshan-2 on July 1 night, in the deadliest terror attack in Bangladesh.
 
Earlier, on Apr 4, the government had set a six-month deadline to remove all commercial units operating on plots or buildings in residential areas in all cities of the country.
 
The authorities said raids would be launched to remove them once the deadline expired.