Hatirjheel project to be completed by December next year

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Development work is going on in full swing for the integrated development of the Hatirjheel area, which includes the Begunbari canal to protect the capital city from floods and storm waters, reports BSS.
Sources said that the project is expected to be completed by December, 2011. Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (RAJUK), the regulatory body in charge of the capital's development, has taken up the work for overall development in and around the area, considering its strategic importance in wastewater management a long-standing problem of the metropolis.
"On completion of the project, it will be opened for traffic through its 9.8 kilometer road, which will have a width of 78 feet and connect the city's Rampura area with the Tongi Diversion Road, both in the west and east side of the project that includes one expressway, a serviceable road and a walkway", Project Director Engineer Raihanul Ferdous told the news agency.
The project covers 300 acres of low-lying land, in and around the Airport Road, near Sonargaon Hotel to Rampura Bridge, and is being developed at a cost of Taka 14.80 billion, jointly by RAJUK, Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), while the Special Works' Organisation (SWO) of the Bangladesh Army is carrying out the construction work.
As compensation for land acquisition in the project site, RAJUK has already paid Taka 4.88 billion to the private landowners for 132 acres of land and another Taka 2.62 billion has been deposited to the government's exchequer for 81 acres that belong to the Court of Wards or are Khas (government-owned) land.
Under the project design, construction of 2.25 kilometers out of 8.80 kilometers road has been completed along with the main diversion sewage line, while the rest of the work will be completed in the next dry season. So far, earth work and sand mixed brick filling of 9.8 kilometers of the road has been completed and work on only 320-meter remains incomplete, as RAJUK is yet to acquire the land.
Construction work on five parabolic bridges, that will connect the project area from north-to-south and west-to-east like the Dhanmandi Lake, out of six such bridges, is going on.