CHATTOGRAM, Feb 24: Dozen-plus infrastructure development projects involving about Tk 280 billion (28,000 crore) have now made Chattogram a centre of attraction.
The projects have been undertaken by the CDA, Chittagong Port, Chittagong City Corporation and the Roads and Highways Department.
During the pre-election period, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated or laid foundation for 16 projects on November 01, 2018.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister inaugurated main work of the two biggest projects. One is nearly Tk 100 billion Karnaphuli Tunnel project and the other is Tk 40 billion Elevated Expressway.
The tunnel project under the ministry of road transport and bridges and the expressway project linking Chattogram Airport with Lalkhan Bazar in the heart of city under the ministry of public works are expected to be completed by the end of 2022, sources at the implementing agencies said.
The Chittagong Port Authority has also started the construction of main work of the Bay Container Terminal as part of its capacity enhancement of cargo handling, thus meeting a long-standing demand of the exporters, importers and investors, both local and foreign.
The Chittagong Development Authority, the implementing agency of the Expressway, is also implementing a Tk 56.16-billion Chattogram waterlogging mitigation project.
The people of Chattogram are the worst sufferers of two major problems --waterlogging and traffic gridlock.
To protect city dwellers from these man-made hazards, the CDA has undertaken the waterlogging mitigation and the expressway projects.
The CDA has already completed the 17-kilometre four-lane Patenga-Fouzderhat Outer Ring Road at a cost of Tk 25 billion and Fouzderhat-Bayezid Bypass Road at a cost of Tk 3.21 billion. These roads are yet to be open to commuters.
The entire road traffic system in the port city and its outskirts will take at least three to four years to come under a new order once the Airport-bound expressway is commissioned alongside the completion of some other road development projects undertaken for smooth traffic movement on the eastern fringes of the city, CDA project officials said.
A CDA project official said work on the 8.5-kilometre road from Kalurghat to the 3rd Karnaphuli Bridge at a cost of Tk 23 billion is going on while the construction of another road to connect the Kalurghat with Karnaphuli Bridge Embankment Road, called Bakolia Access Road, has also started recently.
The Bakolia Access Road is being implemented at a cost of Tk 2.20 billion, he said, adding that the road will facilitate the movement of passenger buses and minibuses from the southeast region of the Chattogram district through outskirts of the city avoiding the densely-populated Bakolia area.
The CDA has also recently commissioned the six-kilometre Oxygen-Kuwaish Bangabandhu Avenue on the northeastern city end built at a cost of Tk 450 million.
Alongside these road transport projects, the Chittagong City Corporation is all set to start another waterlogging mitigation project including canal digging, canal dredging, retaining wall construction on the canal banks and the installation of sluice gates to regulate flood water.
The CCC will implement the project at a cost of Tk 12 billion.
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