Cause of jolt in Tejgaon remains unknown
Staff Correspondent
Inhabitants of the three four-storey buildings of Tejgaon Postal Staff Quarters are passing their days amid anxiety following Friday night's severe shock wave that caused fall of bricks and plaster from the ceilings.Vibrations during the running of trains on the adjacent railway lines grip the residents with fear of building collapse. But no-one could tell for sure what caused the jolt on Friday night. "We felt a severe jolt on Friday night and suddenly bricks and plaster of ceilings of the kitchen rooms of six flats fell when a train passed, shaking the adjacent area," said Soleman Ali, a resident of one of the buildings. Mohammad Khorshed, 35, and Shahinur Begum, 21, residents of the building were injured as the debris fell upon them around midnight. The Star reporter found a portion of the kitchen of the ground floor dislodged while the plaster and bricks around a small pipe fell in chunks from the ceiling. Besides, there are huge cracks on the walls. "As people didn't use gas for cooking 30 years ago, pipes were set at every flat to blow the kitchen smoke out through the roof. Following setting up of gas connections, the pipes were removed and the ceilings plastered," said a resident Mohammad Selim, adding that now the plasters and bricks of that weak spots are falling down. Constructed in 1968 to house 40 families, the buildings are now inhabited by more than 80 families, including those who have rented rooms from the allottees.
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A boy shows a crack in a wall of their flat due to a jolt caused by reasons still unknown. Similar cracks developed on other walls and ceilings of three four-storey buildings at Tejgaon Postal Staff Quarters in the city. PHOTO: STAR |
