Rupayan ignores DoE orders against building on Dhaka pond

Ignoring orders by the Department of Environment, Rupayan Housing Estate has moved to construct a multi-storey building, ‘Rupayan Paradise’, after filling up a water body in Dhaka’s Rayer Bazar.

Obaidur Masum Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 20 April 2019, 05:10 PM
Updated : 20 April 2019, 06:11 PM

The DoE fined the real estate firm for breaching the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act and an order to bring ‘Pottery Pond’ on Sher-e-Bangla Road to its earlier state in March 2017.

The concern of Rupayan Group is yet to follow the orders even after two years.

The group faced criticism recently when irregularities in the construction of a tower at Banani started to come out after a fire in the high-rise claimed over two dozen lives.

The pond at Rayerbazar on Thursday was found to be fenced by tin sheets with security personnel guarding the entrance. They were not allowing anyone into the site without permission of the Rupayan authorities.

The pond was not brought back to its previous shape, a resident of the area told bdnews24.comon condition of remaining unnamed.

In the last two years, no-one from the DoE came to recover the pond, according to locals.

bdnews24.com tried to contact Rupayan Housing Estate Limited Managing Director Patwari Jahir Ullah for comments for two days but his mobile phone was switched off. He did not respond to texts either.

“You’ve reiterated a very important issue,” DoE Director General Sultan Ahmed told bdnews24.com when asked about Rupayan’s move to construct the building.

The DoE chief cited a lack of manpower as a reason behind not taking steps until now.

He would order the enforcement unit of the department to take steps to stop Rupayan from constructing the building, Ahmed said.

Rupayan, not the DoE, will have to excavate the pond, according to the DoE director general.

The DoE asked the company to stop filling up ‘Pottery Pond’ after it started the work in 2016.

The company sought the department’s permission to fill up the pond describing it as “so-called Pottery Pond” and “run-down” on May 10, 2016, but the DoE dismissed its plea.

In a letter to Patwari on June 28 the same year, the department warned the company against filling up the water body owned by an individual.

There is no scope for considering a plea to fill up the pond unless for national interest, according to the letter.

It ordered Rupayan to bring back the pond to its earlier form within two days.

Any place identified as water body will not be allowed to fill, no matter any other existing laws remains in force, according to Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, violation of which is a punishable offence.

Rupayan received a fine of around Tk 1.5 million on Mar 28 the next year for disobeying the orders but has not paid yet.