SYLHET, Dec 17: Work on the crop protection embankments couldn't be started in Sunamganj district due to delay in formation of project implementation committees (PICs) at the upazila level, officials said Monday.
However, the Water Development Board (WDB) earlier set the date for starting the physical work on December 15 and to complete it by February 28.
When contacted, WDB's Superintending Engineer for Sylhet Circle Md Siddiqur Rahman told this correspondent that things were being affected due to delay in formation of project committees at upazilas.
"We hope that work will be started this month", he added.
An amount of Tk 959 million had been sanctioned for Sylhet and Sunamganj. It includes Tk 934 million for Sunamganj and the remaining Tk 20.5 million for Sylhet, he added.
In total, 534 schemes were selected for execution with a target to save Boro paddy in 11 upazilas under Sunamganj.
The total cost for these had been estimated at Tk 934.7 million for reconstruction and reshaping work on a total of 440 km embankments, informed Executive Engineer of WDB for Sunamganj Division-I, Abu Baker Siddiquee, also member-secretary of the district level monitoring committee.
Of the total, Tk 390 million would be spent for 218 schemes in the WDB's division-Sunamganj-I, comprising five upazilas while Tk 545 million would be spent for 335 schemes in the division-SunamganjII comprising six upazilas.
During the last year the highest Tk 1.51 billion was spent for a total of 954 schemes on a total of 1347 km of embankments in Sunamganj.
With the target to save Boro crops ever year, the WDB has to work on the crop protection embankments inside 37 major haors and outside in the district before the rainy season every year.
Due to alleged large-scale irregularities in the crop protection work in 2017, the region suffered devastating floods due to excessive and early rains. Then the government took the highest number of schemes last year.
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