Dhaka-Ctg highway widening project faces fresh setback
Munima Sultana | Monday, 28 March 2011
Munima Sultana
The Dhaka-Chittagong highway widening project is facing yet another hurdle over acquiring land at different points. This may again lead to increase in project cost. A survey team identified at least three spots in Mirersorai and Sitakunda where road expansion has become difficult due to the presence of structures and bazaars. The team comprising officials from the communications ministry and the project office under the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) visited the highway last week and identified the spots. Officials said the state-owned Hafiz Jute Mills at Sitakunda and the building of the power sub-station of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh at Baro Aulia were developed on the government acquired land without the knowledge of the RHD. They said the RHD had acquired the highway land at 13 points some 45 years ago. Though the RHD is trying to remove those structures through communicating with relevant ministries, the project officials however are facing difficulty in removing the structures at Mirersorai Bazar. Leaders in the bazar area which belongs to the constituency of a member of parliament of the main opposition party are reportedly opposing the road expansion work and demanded construction of either a bypass or elevated highway for not disturbing it. A senior official said the RHD has already instructed the consulting firm to conduct a study on the proposal and give a report to find a possible solution. But he said an initial survey has found that the project cost may go up by Tk 2.5 billion if a bypass is constructed from the Mirersorai Bazar and by Tk 3.75 billion if a portion of the highway is elevated in compliance with the local demand. The Tk 24 billion Dhaka-Chittagong Four-lane Project has already faced a setback after all the construction firms could not manage to meet the requirement for large volume of earth to expand the 195-kilometre-long corridor from Daudkandi bridge of Comilla district due to some restrictions imposed by different ministries including agriculture and environment. The agriculture ministry has put a bar on collecting earth from arable land while the environment ministry has restricted supplies from the sea-shore and small hills. Though the environment ministry has issued clearance for collecting sand from one point of the seashore and independent island in Sitakunda last week, it is still not enough to meet the contractors' demand for 1.0 million cubic feet of sand and earth for making the country's economic corridor ready by 2013. The water resource ministry which has allowed collection of the dredged-out silt from the rivers upon an understanding with the ministry of communications, the officials said it has still been difficult because of interference by occupied by political leaders. "The deputy commissioners of many areas are also not cooperating with the firms, mainly the Chinese firm, which is supposed to conduct 70 per cent work of the highway in getting the dredged silt," said a senior official. He said the three assigned firms - Sinohydro of China, Reza Construction Ltd and a consortium of Taher Brothers and Al-Amin Construction Ltd, are trying hard to manage earth from various sources, even by buying the same from the river occupied by ruling party people. He also said in many cases, the collection of required earth and sand is not possible even after payment due to lack of sources like big rivers.
The Dhaka-Chittagong highway widening project is facing yet another hurdle over acquiring land at different points. This may again lead to increase in project cost. A survey team identified at least three spots in Mirersorai and Sitakunda where road expansion has become difficult due to the presence of structures and bazaars. The team comprising officials from the communications ministry and the project office under the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) visited the highway last week and identified the spots. Officials said the state-owned Hafiz Jute Mills at Sitakunda and the building of the power sub-station of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh at Baro Aulia were developed on the government acquired land without the knowledge of the RHD. They said the RHD had acquired the highway land at 13 points some 45 years ago. Though the RHD is trying to remove those structures through communicating with relevant ministries, the project officials however are facing difficulty in removing the structures at Mirersorai Bazar. Leaders in the bazar area which belongs to the constituency of a member of parliament of the main opposition party are reportedly opposing the road expansion work and demanded construction of either a bypass or elevated highway for not disturbing it. A senior official said the RHD has already instructed the consulting firm to conduct a study on the proposal and give a report to find a possible solution. But he said an initial survey has found that the project cost may go up by Tk 2.5 billion if a bypass is constructed from the Mirersorai Bazar and by Tk 3.75 billion if a portion of the highway is elevated in compliance with the local demand. The Tk 24 billion Dhaka-Chittagong Four-lane Project has already faced a setback after all the construction firms could not manage to meet the requirement for large volume of earth to expand the 195-kilometre-long corridor from Daudkandi bridge of Comilla district due to some restrictions imposed by different ministries including agriculture and environment. The agriculture ministry has put a bar on collecting earth from arable land while the environment ministry has restricted supplies from the sea-shore and small hills. Though the environment ministry has issued clearance for collecting sand from one point of the seashore and independent island in Sitakunda last week, it is still not enough to meet the contractors' demand for 1.0 million cubic feet of sand and earth for making the country's economic corridor ready by 2013. The water resource ministry which has allowed collection of the dredged-out silt from the rivers upon an understanding with the ministry of communications, the officials said it has still been difficult because of interference by occupied by political leaders. "The deputy commissioners of many areas are also not cooperating with the firms, mainly the Chinese firm, which is supposed to conduct 70 per cent work of the highway in getting the dredged silt," said a senior official. He said the three assigned firms - Sinohydro of China, Reza Construction Ltd and a consortium of Taher Brothers and Al-Amin Construction Ltd, are trying hard to manage earth from various sources, even by buying the same from the river occupied by ruling party people. He also said in many cases, the collection of required earth and sand is not possible even after payment due to lack of sources like big rivers.