Area survey may be complete in 45 days

Dhaka: The area survey for the Hatirjheel-Begunbari Canal development project involving Tk 1,473.58 crore will be competed in about a month and a half. The survey began in mid-November.

The area survey covering road alignment work will be completed in about a month and a half. The job in all will take two months and a half of which one month has elapsed,’ said Mujibur Rahman, the BUET team leader, on December 25. ‘The detailed feasibility study on the project will be completed in seven months after the job begins.’

The feasibility study includes field survey, area survey, soil testing, sewerage, drainage system, storm sewers, road design and excavation survey, he said.

Mujibur said the preliminary study was done in 2004 then they suggested a 100-foot wide channel on the canal from the Sonargaon Road to the Tongi Diversion Road for the commercialisation by Rajuk behind the Sonargaon Hotel.

˜The total water body area of the canal will be protected under the project,’ he said, adding the government will make decisions on the existing structures.

The government on December 6 decided to cancel the allotment of the Millennium Holding Limited and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry in line with the ongoing process of cancelling all the allotments, given illegally on the Begunbari canal, said a Bangladesh Railway official.

The government cancelled the allotment of plots to the Bangla-desh Textile Mills’ Association and the Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre on June 27 on after a decision to cancel all the plot allotments on Hatirjheel and the Begunbari Canal.
The immediate-past BNP-led government towards the end of its tenure allotted plots to some organisations such as the federation of chambers, textile mills’ association, Millennium Holdings Limited and the International Arbitration Centre on the Begunbari Canal and Hatirjheel.

The executive committee of the National Economic Council approved the Tk 1,473.58 crore development project on October 8 to address the problem of water stagnation and traffic congestion in the city.
The government will finance Tk 1,323 crore while Tk 150 crore is expected from the Japan Debt Cancellation Fund.

Under the project, about 245 acres of land will be acquired at a cost of Tk 101 crore, while Tk 40.8 crore will be spent on the installation of storm sewers, Tk 18 crore on piped drains, Tk 55 crore on 11 kilometres of road on both the banks of the canal, Tk 20.58 crore on silt disposal, Tk 51 crore on beatification up to the Rampura bridge and Tk 40 crore on a 250-metre overpass in the Panthapath crossing.

All the lanes and by-lanes of the area will be connected with the peripheral road, which will ease traffic congestion.

The excavation work will be done under the project to remove organic soil of the canal and to keep canal water pure, said the project director, Haider Ali, at a recent presentation at the secretariat.

A four-lane overpass will be constructed on the Tongi Diversion Road under the project to connect Panthapath to the peripheral road, for which vehicle movement in the crossing of the Tong Diversion Road will be able to move without any signal, he said.