Review committee suspends operation of a unit partially

Dhaka, July 8 (New Age): The government-set review committee on Monday suspended operation in an area of the five-storey building that houses Clifton Cotton Mills Ltd in Chittagong because of safety concern and suggested that factory authorities should manage load in other areas of the building. The review committee’s move came after the inspection teams of North American retailers’ group Alliance had detected serious structural faults in the factory building and suggested the review committee comprised of representatives from the government, Accord, Alliance, BUET, BGMEA and BKMEA immediate evacuation from the building. The experts of the review committee on Monday visited the factory and found that the factor of safety of edge columns along the diagonal site was critical. The team also found undocumented cantilevers on three sides of the buildings and as-built drawing did not match with the actual structure. ‘Operations in the building may continue but the live load during the operations should not exceed 20 pound-force per square feet and all storage load should be removed from the floors except the ground floor,’ Syed Ahmed, inspector general of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment, told New Age on Monday. The review committee asked the factory authorities to keep the area of one bay from the diagonal side out of use for safety, he said. Syed, also the chairperson of the review committee, said that they recommended conducting detail engineering assessment within six weeks to find out the condition of stressed columns. Permanent remedial measures will be taken depending on the findings of the detail engineering assessment and if the factory authorities fail to submit the report within the stipulated time upper two floors of the building will be evacuated, another review panel member said. The review committee team today will visit a building of Fakir Apparels Limited in Narayanganj where the teams of European retailers’ group Accord detected faults. After the Rana Plaza building collapse on April 24 last year that killed more than 1,100 workers, mostly women garment workers, North American apparel companies, retailers and brands formed Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and European Union retailers formed Accord on Fire and Building Safety to improve safety in Bangladeshi RMG factories.