Crack develops in burned building
ntv chief dismisses rumour of sabotage
Staff Correspondent
A crack was found yesterday on the ninth floor of Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC) Bhaban after a devastating blaze burned the 11-storey building two days ago at the teeming Karwan Bazar in the capital.Although two government bodies probing the fire incident could not ascertain any reason for the fire, Enayetur Rahman, managing director (MD) of ntv, located on the sixth floor, dismissed the rumour of sabotage. The ntv and Rtv will move to another building to resume operations, he added. Staffers of the ninth floor noticed the crack in the floor at the western side of the building when they were allowed to visit their offices yesterday. The discovery of the crack caused alarm among the staffers of the eighth and ninth floors. However, a fire service official who is probing the fire incident said there was no reason to panic. Even though security personnel cordoned the building off, they allowed workers and employees of offices inside the building to visit their work place for a short period around 11:00am yesterday. The security officials received lists of staffs of each of the 23 offices and let them in. A number of staffs were allowed to move papers and documents away. A few of the office goers had a sigh of relief finding their offices not too damaged while many others found everything in ruins. Visiting the offices of ntv, Rtv and the daily Amar Desh yesterday, ntv MD Enayetur Rahman said, "The damage to ntv and Rtv offices is huge. It will not be possible to put the channels back on air any time soon." He said ntv would require six months to a year to resume full-scale telecasting. "The damage to daily Amar Desh office is not that severe," he added. After visiting his office, Mominul H Khan, an official of Transnational Consultant Ltd which is on the third floor of the building, said, "Our office was not damaged that much." However, Abdul Matin, deputy manager of Sadharan Bima Corporation, expressed disappointment after visiting the first and second floors for loss assessment. "It looks like a coalmine," he said, adding that he needs more time to determine how much the loss is worth. The BSEC has an insurance of around Tk 10 crore with Sadharan Bima Corporation, which has appointed two surveyors to assess the loss. Two probe bodies--one formed by the home ministry and another by the ministry of industry--yesterday continued their work at the building. They, however, declined to make any comment before completing their work.
| 
