Hatirjheel-Begunbari project ost revised to Tk 19.71b

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Munima Sultana The cost of the Hatirjheel-Begunbari Integrated Development Project has been revised for the second time, following experts' opinions of accommodating some design changes, nine months before its completion. "Now the project will cost Tk 19.71 billion," said an official. The Hatirjheel-Begunbari project was initiated in 2007 with an allocation of Tk 14.73 billion. It was revised for the first time in 2008, re-fixing the project cost at Tk 16.73 billion. At the beginning, the major portion of the Tk 14.73 billion fund was allocated to acquire a total of 243 acres of land, necessary for implementation of the project, officials said. However, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the extra Tk 2.0 billion on December 22, 2008 through nter-sectoral adjustment, not from the revised budget, to acquire additional 34 acres of land. The officials said the latest revision of DPP (draft project proposal) has been necessary to accommodate various infrastructures in the project, including bridges, flyovers and U-loops. The DPP is expected to be placed in the next ECNEC meeting for approval of an additional Tk 2.98 billion fund. The officials and consultants said the project was initially planned on the basis of a hypothetical land survey. So its budget was fixed only for land acquisition and excavation work. They said Bangladesh Army and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) took over the Hatijheel-Begunbari project in 2008. Then its actual land requirement was assessed through conducting field-level survey. Following the survey, approval for the additional Tk 2.0 billion fund was taken on an urgent basis to acquire extra land. "The first revision of the project was necessary, as we could not design the project before acquisition of the extra land," said Dr Mohammad Mujibur Rahman, team leader of the project and head of the Department of Civil Engineering, BUET. The project official said with the revised budget, maximum accommodations like construction of four bridges, overpasses, expressways, service roads and walkways would be possible. "We need to revise the project, as experts have re-designed it from various perspectives, apart from its main objective of increasing rainwater retention capacity and improving water-logging situation of the city," he added. Mujibur Rahman also told the FE that the Hatirjheel-Begunbari project has now been planned from multi-dimensional perspectives for accommodating the need of local people and ensuring various public facilities. He said to keep in mind people's recreation and an enhanced communications system, facilities like floating gardens, bus-stands, parking-lots etc have been included in the project. He also said apart from these, improving sewerage system and reducing traffic jam have also been focused, so that the project can provide maximum comfort to the city dwellers. "People will now enjoy 300 acres-lake with fresh water," he assured. The Hatirjheel-Begunbari project office said it will now have four big bridges, four overpasses, two-lane dedicated expressways and two-lane service roads with six bus-stands, U-loops near Rampura Bridge, walkways, and waterbus services etc.