POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Aug 16, 2022 : Bangladesh is going to inform Chinese Embassy in Dhaka about the security breach in a project run by a Chinese contractor.
The breach left five people killed when a girder fell on a private car from a crane of the under-construction Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Uttara of the capital recently.
The investigation committee, formed after the accident, is now looking at the responsibility of the contractor China Gazhuba Group Corporation (CGGC) in this incident.
Preliminary investigations have even revealed that the contractor has repeatedly violated security.
These matters will be reported to the Chinese Embassy in Bangladesh, said Neelima Akhtar, head of the investigation committee and additional secretary of the Road Transport and Highways Department.
She told reporters in the conference room of the Road Transport and Highways Department at the Secretariat on Tuesday (Aug 16) afternoon.
Neelima Akhter said, our investigation report also said that they (contractors) have violated the security issue many times. That is why we want to report the matter to the concerned embassy. We said this in the investigation.
In response to a question from journalists, the Additional Secretary said, I want to say in one word, there is no question of avoiding responsibility. The precious lives of citizens of Bangladesh have been lost, we do not want to compromise in this regard.
She said, we are saying that this is an ongoing (investigation) matter. Who is responsible, how much is responsible – but we have to check it step by step. All have a link together. We have to follow those things. This is no reason for you to think that we are abdicating our responsibility by blaming a Chinese company. Our citizens’ lives are precious. This is a very sad incident. Can it be left like this?
“So that such incidents do not happen in future, we want to thoroughly examine these things and fix the responsibility as to who is responsible”, said the Additional Secretary.
She further said, our work is almost 80 percent done. Now we can punish, cancel them. In that case, if we go back to contractor selection, our people will be pushed to suffer more.
But suffering is one thing and seeing dead bodies is another thing, Neelima Akhter said, that’s why we are not compromising on this issue anymore.
