The Tk 5 crore project under taken by the Public Works Department, aimed to re-excavate the 14-acre 'lost' lake and beautify the adjoining areas, came to a halt only months after it was inaugurated in February last year.

The project includes setting up two bridges across the lake linking Bagicha-North Shahjahanpur with Biswa Road, a children's park, a footbridge, and a lake side-walk. It also involves cleansing and refreshing the water body, and a graveyard on 12 bighas of land on the lake's west bank.

However, a visit to the designated location revealed little evidence of the restoration process, with piles of garbage littering the murky streams of water and toxic substances flowing all over the water body.

Although signs of development work are evident at remote spots that seem to have been filled up with earth alongside the lake, no beautification is apparent.

"We saw ministry workers evicting some structures alongside the lake during the beginning of the project and later labourers filled up the lake bank. That is all we have seen them doing," said Monirul Islam, a resident of Bagicha.

The local ward commissioner expressed his optimism about how the project would beautify the area and give it a new outlook, but could not give any relevant information on the amount of work that have been completed.

Asked, Sazzad Jahir, the commissioner of Dhaka City Corporation ward-35, said the lake has been dredged and the designated spot for the graveyard has been earth-filled.

"The 5-7 feet layer of household waste and polythene in the lake water has been removed. This should solve the problem of water-logging in Malibagh, Shantibagh, Gulbagh and the adjoining areas," said Jahir.

"The beautification of the surrounding areas was supposed to begin after dredging is complete, but I am not sure how far the work has come," added Jahir.

The lake was tainted by indiscriminate dumping of household, industrial and medical waste into its water over the last 35 years.

"Over the years, the lake has become a convenient spot for the residents to dump waste. The slums that have spawned in the lakeside areas do not help things either," said Khairuzzaman, a resident of Bagicha.

Akkas Ali Mia, executive engineer of PWD and the official responsible for the project could not be contacted for his comments. However, officials from his department told the Star City correspondent that the work has been halted briefly due to fund constraints.

"We are having some fund constraints, therefore the work is stopped now," said an official. "We look forward to resuming the work as soon as possible," he added.

Abdullah-al-Shafi, additional chief engineer of PWD, said he is hopeful that the work should be finished within the stipulated time.

"The project was scheduled to be finished in two years. We are bound to complete it within the third quarter of this year," said Shafi. "I am not sure if the work is in progress or not, but I heard there was some fund constraints," he added.