16-acre RHD land recovered

Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in the last two days recovered 16 acres of its land from the possession of encroachers along the Airport Road in Sylhet.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges launched the eviction drive through RHD on Tuesday. 

“This is the beginning of the eviction drive to recover RHD lands, and the drive will continue to recover all grabbed lands in Sylhet,” said Utpol Shamonto, an executive engineer at RHD.

Kamrul Islam, deputy secretary of road transport and bridges ministry, led the drive that knocked down around a hundred structures along a 3.5-kilometre stretch of the road, starting from Sylhet Cadet College upto Osmani International Airport.

RHD insiders said the same area was recovered before in a drive after the 1/11 in 2007. But later on, more than a hundred structures including hotels, markets, tea stalls, shops and slums sprung up on the land.

RHD's Utpol said the encroachers were given repeated notices over the past 11 years and a final notice was given three months ago. They still did not move away. “On Monday, we again made announcements [of eviction drive] in the area. And on Tuesday, the ministry directly started the eviction drive. “We [RHD] used to run the drives with the help of the district administration, but the ministry this time started the eviction drive directly,” he added.

According to the RHD, the eviction drive is being launched as the ministry has decided to widen the Airport Road into four lanes.