Chattogram court summons officials in case against plan to build hospital at CRB

A Chattogram court has summoned government officials and others in a case against the construction of hospital or other structures at the site of Central Railway Building or CRB in the port city.

First Senior Assistant Judge Rubayet Ferdous recorded the representative suit filed by lawyer Kazi Sanwar Ahmed Lavlu on Monday.

The lawyer said he would move the court for the publication of the summons to the 16 respondents after the Eid-ul-Azha holidays.

“The aim is to allow others to be a party to the case because it’s an issue of public interest.”

The respondents include the Liberation War affairs secretary, the director of Department of Environment in Chattogram, the secretary to Chattogram Development

Authority, the health director of Chattogram Division, the district’s deputy commissioner and the commissioner of Chattogram Metropolitan Police.

Sanwar said he initiated the case to prevent all from constructing hospitals or other structures at CRB, a place of natural beauty laced with the memories of Liberation War martyrs.

The government signed a deal with private firm United Enterprise Company Ltd in March last year to construct a 500-bed hospital, a medical college with 100 seats and a 50-seat nursing institute.

When the authorities began evicting residents from Railway Hospital Colony quarters recently, members of the public and activists alike burst into protests.

Under the project, the structures are supposed to be constructed next to the Railway Hospital and quarters on a six-acre piece of land in the CRB area at an estimated cost of Tk 400 over 12 years.

Although Bangladesh Railway said no old tree will be felled for the project, protesters said the construction will threaten the environment of the entire area.