DHAKA, Aug 29: Bangladesh work crews on Monday began bulldozing more than 100 high-rise buildings in Dhaka after authorities said they posed a danger to planes using the international airport.

The workers started demolishing the buildings after the Civil Aviation Authority said they were a hazard to aircraft using Dhaka’s Zia International Airport because they are too close to the runways and terminal.

“We started the demolition drive today at the Civil Aviation Authority’s request and it will continue until October,” government magistrate Mohammad Helaluddin said.

Most of the buildings being knocked down “were constructed without any approval from us,” said Shah Alam Chowdhury, a spokesman for the Civil Development Authority, Dhaka’s building approval and planning authority.

“If these buildings are not demolished, accidents could happen at any time,” Chowdhury said. The tallest building being knocked down is six storeys high. Dhaka, a congested city of 12 million that was once known as the ‘garden city’, is in the midst of a building boom.

Hundreds of multi-storey buildings have sprung up over the past decade.

Many do not comply with building regulations, authorities say.

Some builders bribe officials to get permission or go ahead without approval.

Dhaka is hemmed in by a network of rivers that prevent it from expanding outward. It has increasingly turned to high-rise development to accommodate its ever-growing population that stood at just one million in 1971. —AFP