The Krishi Market traders, whose shops were burnt down in the early morning fire on 14 September, have urged that arrangements be made as quickly as possible for them to resume business.

Ahsan Ullah’s shop, Siam Shoes, was among the 400 shops destroyed by the fire. He is estimating a loss of Tk10 lakh.

“I have a loan of Tk6 lakh. Moreover, I owe a large amount of money to the shoe factory. Earnings from the shop was my only source of income,” Ahsan Ullah told The Business Standard.

“We want our market to be restored soon. We don’t want high-rise buildings but the city corporation can at least set up tin shed shops so that we can resume business immediately,” he added.

Another shoe shop owner, Nurul Haque, however, said, “We don’t want makeshift shops like Bangabazar. We have retail businesses and customers won’t buy from us if they don’t like the environment or if the products are not displayed.”

Md Abed, owner of a watch shop, said, “I have a loan of Tk10 lakh and have to repay every week. I can restart my business if the government provides some incentives.”

Al Amin, owner of a hardware store, said, “Goods worth Tk80 lakh and Tk2 lakh cash were burnt in the fire. If the city corporation cannot restore the shops, they should declare that. We will rebuild the shops ourselves and resume business.”

President of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association, Md Helal Uddin, said, “Traders will try to recoup from their losses as soon as shops are restored… It is possible to set up a good tin shed market here in less than a month.”

A 5-member investigation committee of Dhaka North City Corporation is working to find out the cause of the market fire and the extent of damage.

Department of Disaster Management’s Relief and Rehabilitation Officer for Dhaka district Abdur Rahman said that they have been enlisting victims of the fire. Some 268 owners and traders were enlisted with 544 salesmen as victims in the fire by Friday afternoon.

No new salesman or owners were enlisted on Saturday, confirmed Dhaka District Commissioner Office.

Dhaka North City Chief Executive Office Md Selim Reza said, “We will take further action based on the report of the investigation committee. We are trying to make arrangements as soon as possible so that traders can do business like before.

“However, many of them do not have valid documents for which we are facing some challenges.”