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Published : 04 Apr 2023, 09:05 PM
The government will rehabilitate the traders affected by the devastating fire at Bangabazar market, State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Md Enamur Rahman has said.
The rehabilitation process will start on instructions from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after the government determines the losses incurred by the traders, Enamur said during a visit to the site on Tuesday.
Dhaka South City Corporation, which owns the market, formed an eight-strong committee to list the victims and assess the damage. The committee has been given three days to submit its report.
The fire broke out at Bangabazar, one of the biggest clothing markets in the country, at 6:10am on Tuesday. Fifty fire service units, with support from the army and the air force, were able to bring the fire under control after six and a half hours.
By then, the labyrinthine alleys and shops of Bangabazar, which consists of Bangabazar Complex, Mahanagar Market, Adarsha Market and Gulistan Market, had burnt down. The nearby Anexco Tower and several other buildings were also damaged.
The sprawling market housed 2,370 shops. Before Eid-ul-Fitr, each shop had stocked goods worth millions for sale, but unfortunately, most of the products were burned to ashes as the shopkeepers could not enter the stores to save their inventory.
Helal Uddin, president of the Bangladesh Shop Owners' Association, arrived at the scene around noon and said the damage could be as high as Tk 20 billion.
He urged the government to allocate Tk 7 billion as immediate help for the affected traders. “It’s like doomsday here.”
Bangabazar is the primary wholesale market for jeans, trousers, T-shirts, and girls' clothing nationwide. Traders had been actively procuring new products for their shops and inventory in preparation for Eid. Some had even loaded their goods the night before the fire.
