RAJUK demolishes rooftop restaurant in Dhanmondi, seals 12 others

A rooftop restaurant at the Gausia Twin Peak building on Satmasjid Road in Dhanmondi has been demolished. Twelve other restaurants in the building have been sealed.

The executive magistrate said that there was permission to set up offices in the building, but not restaurants. RAJUK had inspected the building on 23 May last year and issued notices in this regard.

RAJUK Zone-3 director and executive magistrate Tazina Sarwar conducted this drive today, Monday. The drive began after 11:00 am . The restaurants had closed before that.

Rooftop restaurant Retro Life Kitchen was demolished. Executive magistrate Tazina Sarwar said that the Twin Peak building had F-1 permission. That means the building could be used for offices, but not for restaurants. Also, none of the restaurants had permission from the district administration.

The orders for certain buildings to be shut down will be sent to the Dhaka district administration. They will then take action.

During the drive, a Tk 200,000 fine was slapped on a restaurant called Spice Herbs. Its owner Raisul Alam Khan told Prothom Alo, “I had no idea that we couldn’t have a restaurant here. I had no idea about permission from the district administration either. This is a commercial building and so I opened up a restaurant. What is our fault? What will we do now?”

Logistic manager of the Gausia Twin Peak building’s developer authorities, Shahidul Islam, said that the building is running just as the architect designed it. He said they had taken permission from the public works ministry to have restaurants. However, there were conditions in RAJUK’s F-1 approval. He said that the architect had told them that all over Dhaka, even if there is F-1 approval, restaurants can be set up.

Shahidul said that the developers were never informed that the building was being run outside of the architect’s design. No notices were issued either. He said that the owners of the building would know about whether restaurants were running without permission.

RAJUK said that where the restaurant authorities are present, fines are being imposed. The drive will continue.

On Thursday night, 46 people were killed in a fire that broke out in Green Cozy Cottage, a building on Bailey Road in the capital. There were restaurants on all floors of the building except one. The fire service said that there was no fire safety system in the building. Notices were issued three times to this end, but no action was taken.

Since that incident, from Sunday evening till night police have carried out drives in around 50 restaurants in Gulshan, Dhanmondi, Mirpur and Uttara of the capital. Police have detained at least 22 persons including restaurant managers and staff in the drive.