The government's move to build three satellite towns around Dhaka remained shelved for the last four years in absence of any concrete planning and study in this regard, officials and experts said.
They also blamed complexities in acquiring land and lack of experience in developing township infrastructure projects for the failure.
In accordance with the government's plan to lessen the growing population pressure on the capital, National Housing Authority (NHA) had selected three places for constructing satellite towns, that were supposed to be built under PPP (Public and Private Partnership) initiative in 2009 with an estimated cost of Tk 220.46 billion.
The selected places were-Ichhamati Satellite Town at Sirajdikhan of Munshiganj (Tk 66.36 billion), Dhaleshwari-Singair Satellite Town in Manikganj (Tk 94.73 billion) and Bangshi-Dhamrai Satellite Town in Dhamrai of Dhaka district (Tk 59.37 billion).
A senior official at the Ministry of Housing and Public Works (MoHPW) said the key projects for establishing satellite towns close to the capital were taken to accommodate tens of thousands of families in a move to reduce pressure of newcomers on one of the globe's most densely-populated cities - Dhaka.
"Yes, no visible progress was made in respect to the projects even after several years of the initiative," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Under the projects, the satellite towns having high-rises will be developed on a total of 590 square kilometres area under the Dhaka Details Area Plan. Each of the towns will have 0.1 million (one lakh) eco-friendly residential flats with other facilities including water, gas and electricity supplies.
Both plots and flats will be offered in these projects. Necessary infrastructures like roads, flyover and other facilities will also be developed in the satellite towns so that residents of these places can easily come to the capital for their daily needs, according to the projects.
Talking on the issue, NHA Superintending Engineer AKM Fazlul Kabir said the status of the projects remains same where it was in the initial stage as complexities in land acquisition led to the thaw.
"We're are now thinking of taking another move to make fresh estimation of costs in this regard as it is not possible to implement those projects with the earlier estimation that was prepared more than four years ago," he said.
The superintending engineer said they had prepared documents about the township schemes through a team of IBA of the University of Dhaka and submitted those to the PPP cell under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) two years ago. "We did not receive further instruction from the PMO to this effect," he added.
Official statistics show that Dhaka city's population grew to 10 million in recent years from less than 0.5 million in early 90s. However, many differ with the official statistics and believe the capital city's population is more than 14 million.
With the economy growing, people moved to cities and prefer better living condition with upgraded facilities in an overpopulated city, which lacks enough space to accommodate its huge population.
The growing population has caused a matter of serious concern for the city planners who fear that the small city might be abandoned in coming days if alternative steps were not taken.
Realising the necessity, the Awami League-led grand alliance government after the 9th parliamentary elections took the move in 2009 and decided to complete the satellite towns under the PPP initiative.
Immediate past state minister of the MoHPW Abdul Mannan Khan publicly announced on several occasions in 2010 that the projects will be completed within 3 years.
The former minister's comments over the issue could not be taken even after repeated efforts.
When contacted, Dhaka Divisional Commissioner Zillar Rahman, who was a joint secretary at the MoHPW when the project was initiated, said no project is implemented in a scattered or non-systematic way.
He said they had communicated with the Indian conglomerate Sahara Group and a Korean developer, who have the experience of building such modern infrastructure.
"But we could not proceed further as there was a lack of proper planning and study to go for such projects," he said.
Mr Rahman also suggested formation of a special committee or special cell with dedicated officials to rightly handle the projects.
"There should be a body to take charge of the whole process and appoint experts concerned in line with the project requirements as there is no alternative to such projects to protect Dhaka from the pressure of excess population and nagging traffic congestion," he added.
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