Fire-ravaged Korail slum gets new look

Less than a month into a devastating fire that ripped through the Korail slum in the capital, the homeless people there are going to have a roof over their heads soon.

For the last couple of days, the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) in association with Brac has been helping the slum dwellers build new houses.

The DNCC and Brac are providing bamboo, wood and colourful corrugated tin roofs to 80 affected house owners whose shanties were burnt on December 4.

The house owners are either working themselves or engaging labourers in the construction.

The fire gutted some 526 shanties and about rendered 2,000 people homeless.

Rashid Mollah is one such victim. He had six shanties which were burnt in the fire. The 55-year-old man lived in one and rented out the rest to tenants to earn a living.

He is now happy as he would be able to build new ones. “If they [DNCC and Brac] did not help, I wouldn't have been able to build my house,” he said.

Talking to The Daily Star on Tuesday, local Ward Councillor Mofizur Rahman said a total of 526 houses were being built and the whole process was being supervised by the 80 house owners.

DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq and Brac were providing colourful tins, bamboo and wood for new houses, he added.

According to a Brac news portal “response.brac.net”, the construction work is expected to end by mid-January.

In the second week of December, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided Tk 13,000 to around 500 affected families, said the ward councillor.

Besides, other NGOs had provided primary supports like food, utensils and blankets.

Rashid Mollah said the new houses were being built as per a DNCC plan. The alleys inside the slum were being widened so that people could move easily if any such incident occurs again.

The alleys were only three-metre wide, but now they were being expanded to six metres. Besides, new lanes were being made, he added.

Like Rashid, all affected house owners are now busy making their houses.

Meanwhile, many tenants did not leave the slum fearing losing a place to live.

Take Amena Begum. Though her rented shanty was burnt, she did not leave the place. Her eight-year-old daughter Munni, who studies at an NGO-run school, stayed there and took preparations for her final examinations.

Amena did not move to another place as she feared that moving somewhere else might cost the shelter.

She is happy as she hopes to enter the newly-built house soon.

Maulana Abdus Sobhan, president of Korail Slum Development Association, said they demanded that the tenants be allowed to live in the houses for 15 months without rent.

However, the Brac portal said, “Upon further negotiations, the local councillor has agreed to waiver house rent for approximately six months.”

While many Korail victims expressed satisfaction over the DNCC's assistance, some house owners, whose houses are on the lake, are facing hardship in affording the labour cost for setting up base pillars in the water for the houses.

“I need to pay Tk 800 a day to a labour. How can I meet this expense alone?” said Jahangir Hossain, a house owner.

Contacted, DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq said he visited the slum soon after the fire was doused and formed a coordination committee, which has been overseeing all the issues including, construction of the houses.

He said apart from DNCC, Brac, EXIM Bank and other national and international NGOs and organisations also provided financial assistance to the victims.