NILPHAMARI, Mar 27: Land acquisition for widening Saidpur-Nilphamari road has been started. Roads and Highway Department (RHD) sources said widening of 16 km long road has been taken as a priority project due to attachment of the road with the Uttara EPZ and Chilahati Land Port.
Moreover there are many financial institutions and so on in the vicinity of the road that include Saidpur railway workshop, Parbotipur locomotive workshop, Saidpur airport, Boropukuria coal mine and electricity generation plant, Parbotipur railway junction and so on.
The road would provide connectivity with those institutions and places which will increase the pace of development of the neglected region and help to reduce economic discrimination among the regions of the country and prevent disparity. Specially Nilphamari is a gateway and connectivity hub of the northern districts.
While contacted RHD executive engineer Nilphamari A K M Hamidur Rahman said total cost of widening of the road is Tk 2.26 billion out of which 45 percent of the project cost is for the expansion of the road while 55 percent for land acquisition and other works. He said 5 km road in front of Uttara EPZ and SEZ would be of four lane highway comprising 48 feet in wide while the rest would be of 40 feet wide and the bottom would comprise 70 feet and beyond.
RHD sources said existing breadth of the road is only 18 feet that creates acute traffic congestion everyday.
While contacted ADC (rev) and land acquisition officer Mojibur Rahman said land acquisition formalities are on progress and mentioned that 55 per cent cost of land acquisition allotted for the project may not be adequate as there are hundreds of shops, houses and other installations in both sides in all over the road.
He also mentioned moreover compensation amount of land acquisition has now been increased three fold by the government recently than what it was in the last year.
The land owners shall have to pay three times more than the prevailing actual market price of land of the concern area.
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