Electricity connection resumed in New Super Market, customers few
A fire blazed through Dhaka Super Market on Saturday
Electricity connection has been restored to the New Super Market, and all shops except for the ones that were burned in the fire reopened on Saturday (15 April).
A visit to the market on Wednesday showed that the shops on the first floor and ground floor were open. The shops on the second floor were badly burnt and are being cleaned up.
Mohammad Maruf Hossain, the convener of New Super Market Shop Owners' Association, told The Business Standard, "We got electricity connection yesterday [Tuesday] and shops are open today."
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About 226 shops on first and second floors were burnt he said, adding that about Tk100-150 crores worth of goods were damaged in the fire.
"If furniture and decorations of the shops are included, the total loss would amount to about Tk300-350 crores," Maruf Hossain said.
He said the list of victims of the fire at the New Super Market, which is under the ownership of Dhaka South City Corporation, will be submitted to the mayor today. He hoped the government would help the affected businessmen.
He stated that the market comprises approximately 1,225 shops which faced significant losses before Eid.
Assuming an average daily sales of Tk50,000 per shop, he said the total loss would be substantial.
Mohammad Sant, a salesman at a Panjabi shop called V Wear, said, "We got electricity connection yesterday. We opened the shop today. Customers are saying the price is high. During the last Eid, about Tk2 lakh were sold per day. Now there are no buyers."
Al Imran's shop was on the second floor of this market. He used to sell jeans pants in the shop. The shutters of the shop are being reinstalled after the fire.
Al Imran said, "The market has opened but there is no goods in our shop. I sold goods worth Tk1.30 lakh last Friday. That money was in the shop. All gone. There was about Tk25 lakh worth of goods in the shop and everything was burnt. I wish the government would quickly repair our damaged shops and give us some capital to buy goods."
A fire at the capital's New Super Market shopping mall broke out at around 5:40am this Saturday. The market houses around 1,300 shops.
Twenty-eight firefighting units along with firefighting teams of the Bangladesh Army, Navy and Air Force brought the blaze under control after 3 hours of effort.
