Ctg planners question construction of flyovers without study

CHITTAGONG, May 25: Construction of flyovers in the port city without any feasibility study was creating traffic congestions and causing trouble for commuters instead of easing the same.
City planners, architects and communication experts expressed the view at a press conference at Chittagong Press Club Sunday. They have raised the question over the use of a large amount of money from the government coffer in the name of flyover construction by the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA).
No flyover at a busy junction was feasible while proper traffic management could case sufferings of the commuters there, they said.
The press conference was organised by the Forum for Planned Chittagong (FPC), a non-government organisation of planners, architects, engineers and professionals of Chittagong.
FPC President Prof Sekandar Khan, vice chancellor of East Delta University, secretary of the organisation Architect Zerina Hossain, among others, spoke on the occasion.
"Traffic congestions at the flyover points have not eased; rather those flyovers have created trouble as is the case with in the city's Bahaddarhat Flyover," FPC vice president Engr Subhash Chandra Barua said in a written statement read out at the press conference.
He said the CDA had so far constructed two flyovers in the city-at Bahaddarhat and Dewanhat. "If you look at the Bahaddarhat Flyover, you will find that a very negligible number of vehicles use the flyover while the commuters are facing problems as before," he said.
It was because the CDA did not conduct any feasibility study in the area. The FPC opposed the construction of Bahaddarhat Flyover from the very beginning but the development agency neglected the planners and architects.
Local people and Minister for Public Works Engr Mosharaf Hossain inspected the traffic movement on the Bahaddarhat Flyover and expressed the view that the purpose of constructing the flyover had not been fulfilled. Rather, it increased sufferings of the commuters.
"Nowhere in the world will you find construction of flyovers without conducting any feasibility study but the CDA has been doing it continuously without consulting the city planners and engineers," Subhash Barua said.
The CDA had also undertaken the 5.2 kilometre-long Muradpur-Lal Khan Bazar Flyover project, for which tender was invited on May 15. Another project for building a flyover from the Shah Amanat Karnaphuli Bridge to Patenga had also been undertaken, he said.
"Flyovers should be constructed at junctions where more than 10,000 vehicles ply in an hour. But the survey reports say that at the Bahaddarhat Flyover junction about 2,791 vehicles cross the point," he added.