Over hundreds of illegal occupiers grabbed the land of both sides of the rail lines from Narayanganj railway station to Chashara. Many shops including one big knit wastage, tin shade markets have been built adjacent to railways that hampered the commuters’ movement in those areas in the city. A knit wastage shop owner in an anonymous condition told that he purchased a shop paying fifteen lakh taka in cash and monthly rent twenty thousand taka.
Almost a few crore taka is earned from this market in illegal ways and the traders admit that some officials of the railway are involved with this irregularity. After visiting the spots, it was seen that that around 350 knit wastage shops are running business from Bangabandhu road to Chashara.
The city councilor Moniruzzaman Monir, who allegedly watches over those illegal markets, he directly mentioned a surveyor named Iqbal Hossain who is serving at railway divisional railway real estate office.
When contacted with the railway surveyor Iqbal Hossain, he denied his involvement with irregularities but he admitted that the shops are illegal and occupied the rail line.
Narayanganj railway stationmaster Kamrul Islam told that those markets are absolutely illegal, added that once upon a time, rail authority received compensation tax from the shop but that procedure had been stopped since 2016. Dhaka divisional estate officer of railway, Shofiullah said that the knit wastage shop was constructed on a rail line but they have been staying illegally based on a case to the court against the rail authority. A general calculation is that if the 350 shop owners pay rent twenty thousand taka and per month, the figure is seventy lakh taka.
