Around 40 building inspectors from 4 different zones of Rajuk are studying the high rise buildings and their surrounding areas including the width of the adjacent streets, open spaces and parking facilities.

An official source from Rajuk said that the new project was initiated to keep a record of the synopsis of high-rise buildings in the city. Detailed inspection would also help the authorities to smoke out the bottlenecks and irregularities that exist in the system for future developments.

According to the Building Construction Rules 1996, structures of 6 stories and above can be bracketed as high-rise buildings. The act also discloses that a 9-storey high-rise building would be permissible only if the adjacent street has a minimum width of 25 feet.

However, the entire city is virtually swarming with buildings crossing the 6-storey mark in even the most cramped of areas. Majority of these buildings were either constructed without any authorisation form Rajuk or are in total violation of the proper construction rules. All the while the same building operators, who are now engaged in door-to-door inspection, allegedly fattened their wallets.

Although rules prohibit the construction of any high-rise building if the adjacent street lengths are below 25 feet, there are countless instances where the city has as high as 20 storied buildings adjacent to streets as narrow as 10 feet.

Worst victim of this haphazard urbanization include city areas like Dhanmondi, Jhigatola, Rayer Bazar, Green Road, Azimpur, Malibagh, Mogbazar, Rampura, Mirpur, Segunbagicha and numerous other areas.

A towering 19-storey building in Segunbagicha, near the Muktijuddha Jadughar is located next to a street of less than 20 feet while another 18-storied residential building was recently constructed in Dhanmondi on the western side of Road 8A, where the width of the road is hardly 15 feet.

A survey conducted in 2005 suggests that there are around 4,376 buildings ranging from 6 to 22 storeys high in around 66 localities of the city. Although Rajuk officials have no idea on how many of these structures were built following proper construction rules, a source from Rajuk believes that almost 95 percent of the buildings deviated from the concerned rules.

According to competent sources, anomalies behind faulty approval or non-approval of high-rise buildings include mainly political and distractive pressures and lobbying in connivance with a corrupt section of Rajuk officials.

Corrupt practices at all the agencies concerned and finally at Rajuk, connivance and political pressures are what have been applied for managing dubious approval of high-rise buildings.

A large section of landowners, developers, engineers and architects are involved in the irregularities. Rajuk, the sole authority to approve building plans and to monitor construction, is riddled with corruption where anyone can get anything done through a gang of highly influential and well-linked middlemen, said a competent source from Rajuk.

For approval of buildings above 6-storeys high, the developers have to seek clearances from 16 government agencies including Department of Environment, Civil Aviation, Fire services, Wasa, Desa, DCC, Caab and Titas gas.

However, a developer who built a ten-storey structure recently in Malibagh said that these clearances tend to be readily available through Rajuk middlemen for a hefty sum of money. "It is an open secret that these papers are issued without any inspection or question asked by any authority. But for the sake of an approved plan we have to buy them," said the developer requesting anonymity.

A seemingly reformed Rajuk officials now believe that it is high time for the authority to verify the authenticity of the high-rise buildings in the city.

"Although most of the damage is already done, we have decided to study the overall situation of the number of high-rise buildings in the city. This would also allow us to find the irregularities in the system, subsequently allowing us to strengthen the constitution of Rajuk," said an authorised officer of Rajuk requesting anonymity.