Damaged secretariat building opens today

The lower five floors of the damaged secretariat building have been opened to offices on Sunday, 10 days after the fire incident.

On the day officials were seen resuming works at the building no 7.

During a visit at the building, the housing and public works ministry secretary, Md Hamidur Rahman Khan, told reporters that office works had been resumed at the building’s ground to 4th floors.

He said that works were ongoing to resume the connections of water and internet at the floors opened to offices as at some places these connections were still not available.

He also said that the damaged 5th to 8th floors would be opened within 10 to 15 days.

fire broke out at Building 7 at the secretariat, the administrative headquarters of the government, in the capital on the early hours of December 26, burning offices and documents of five ministries –– the local government, rural development and co-operatives ministry, the post and telecommunication ministry, the youth and sports ministry, the labour and employment ministry and the road transport and bridges ministry.

The committee, formed on December 26 to probe the fire incident, in its preliminary report on December 31 said that a loose electrical connection caused the fire and the probe body did not find involvement of any person in the incident.

‘We reached a consensus in our initial probe that the fire originated from a loose electrical connection,’ said the committee head, home affairs ministry senior secretary Nasimul Gani, on the day.

New Age