Railmen, shop owners complain over illegal building

Gampola railway station officials have joined shop owners who have rented out stalls on an alleged illegal building on Gampola railway reserve land owned by a businessman, to complain to the Gampola Municipal Council over the safety of the construction and it being a hindrance to the Railway Department.

However no action has been taken in this regard. The businessman identified as Mohammed Nasser popularly known as Nasser Hajiar was reported to have used his political influence as a former Central Province SLFP Councillor to seek approval to obtain railway reserve land to put up the building.

Mr. Nasser Hajiar was said to have obtained approval from the Gampola Municipal Council to start its construction. However many railway officials as well as shopkeepers who own shops in the premises had complained to the Gampola Municipal Council that the building was unsafe as trains pass the place.

The Sunday Times learns that proper Municipal Council guidelines had not been followed in putting up such a building on State owned land.

The construction on two slabs of concrete supported by concrete pillars houses around 200 shops. Gampola railway station officials complain that due to the construction they are unable to carry out any expansion work.

It is learnt that the Council had given its approval to construct shops for which the owner obtained non-refundable deposits as well as monthly rentals.

When The Sunday Times contacted Mr. Nasser Hajiar he said that he had received approval from Ministers D.M Jayaratne and A.H.M Fowzie to put up a building to house shops.

However many businessmen who feel cheated have complained to the local council but they believe nothing will be done. Ganesh Subramaniam who owns a textile shop in the premises told The Sunday Times that he has tried to contact Mr. Nasser Hajiar regarding the safety of the construction but he had been ignored.

“Most of us feel cheated. I paid Rs. 150,000 as a non-refundable deposit to Nasser Hajiar to get this slot and I pay him a monthly rental of Rs. 4,000 but now most of us don’t pay him the rent as the building can collapse any time. This is our only source of livelihood.

When trains pass this spot we can feel the building shaking. We have no choice but to carry on till we find another place. We complained to the council but not much has been done,” he said.

Previously Nasser Hajiar had the tried to re-acquire a state owned land belonging to the Janatha Estates Development Board (JEDB) in Colombo 14 that he had leased for a low cost housing project that never materialized.

He had, however, leased the land to the multi-billion rupee logistics company K-Port (Pvt) Ltd. owned by Kamil Kuthubdeen, one of the prime suspects in the Rs.3.57 billion VAT scam.