Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakhha for the second day conducted a demolition drive on Thursday to pull down Wonderland Amusement Park at Gulshan in the capital.
The drive was led by magistrate Rokon-ud-Doula following a court order that declared illegal the lease of the land on which the park was built.
‘We have begun demolishing the park, as the land belongs to the erstwhile Dhaka City Corporation and the Supreme Court has declared the establishment illegal on this land,’ said Rajuk magistrate Rokon-ud-Doula.
He told New Age, ‘Though Rajuk is supposed to remove the entire commercial set up of Wonderland to make the playground open to public, the authorities  gave the park authorities two days to remove the heavy and expensive rides and equipment inside the park and they are doing these.’
Tearing down the main entrance to the amusement park, Rajuk started the drive on May 7.
Wonderland Amusement Park managing director M Mustafizur Rahman said, ‘Rajuk is conducting the drive without any eviction order and no eviction case was filed against me.’
He, on behalf of the park authorities, said more than 100 workers were working to remove the park equipment from the park.
Mustafizur told New Age, ‘I will not let this incident go unchallenged.’
The park was built occupying around four acres of land of the Gulshan Central Playground and it had 120 games for kids and cost more than Tk 150 crore, he informed.
Rajuk executive engineer Nurul Islam told New Age that they had launched the drive following a May 3 order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
He said, ‘We will knock down the boundary walls  of the park, restaurants with two bulldozers and more than 30 labourers will be backed up by around 100 riot police for the drive.’