Ctg town protection dam and outer ring road project finalised in ERD

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Chittagong Office
CHITTAGONG, Nov 20: The outer ring road and town protection dam undertaken by the CDA (Chittagong Development Authority) was finalised in the economic relations department (ERD) under the ministry of finance yesterday.
Under the project proposal CDA will construct a 33 feet high town protection dam along the coast to protect crops and dwellings from tidal waves, 80 feet wide outer ring road from Patenga to Sagorika with 4 lanes to ease traffic jam at the entrance points of the city from Chittagong-Dhaka highway and 3 feeder roads from Patenga, Baropole and Sagorika, which will connect the outer ring road.
Length of the 4 lane Patenga-Sagorika outer ring road will be 7 kilometres and that of the 3 feeder roads approaching the ring road will be 15 kilometres, project officials said.
Estimated cost of the project is Tk. 13,000 million (Tk. 1300 crores) and acquisition of land for the project will start by April 2010, project officials said, adding the Japanese government will provide soft loan of Tk 7000 million for infrastructure development of the project through JICA while Bangladesh government will provide Tk 6000 million for acquisition of land.
CDA officials said, to finalize the project proposal a meeting was held at the ERD conference hall in Dhaka yesterday afternoon.
Presided over by Mosharraf Hussain Bhuiyan, additional secretary of the ministry of planning, the meeting was attended by JICA team leader and head of South Asia Division-5 Mr. Kennichan Yamamoto, CDA chairman Abdus Salam, senior officials of the ministry of water resources, ministry of public works and project director of the CDA.
Sources said, minutes of the points of discussion (MPD) would be signed after the vacation of the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha and the governments of Japan and Bangladesh would sign the final agreement in early February next.
A 5-member team of Japan International Cooperation Agency arrived in Chittagong on a two-day visit last week to see the project sites. They had meetings with CDA chairman, city planners and engineers and concerned officials of the local administration and other departments.
Project director (PD) of CDA Kazi Hasan Bin Shams told the FE last night that the project has been undertaken to save the coastal people and their wealth from the strong tides of the Bay of Bengal as many parts of the Patenga-Fouzderhat embankment have been damaged.
"The vulnerability of the embankment at different points poses threat to the existence of the people living along the embankment, besides leaving many industrial units exposed to water surge and flood," engineer Kazi Hasan said.
"The traffic jam caused due to plying of heavy trucks from Chittagong port to other parts of the country including Dhaka via this part of the city is a constant headache for the commuters. The proposed outer ring road will ease the congestion to some extent," he added.