City contractor grabs part of Uttara Lake

While the government has taken a plan to develop Uttara Lake at the cost of Tk 35 crore, a city corporation contractor has been filling earth in the water body for the last two weeks.

The earth dumped has created an around 750 sq ft ground off the bank along Sonargaon Janapath in Uttara Sector 11, where bricks were piled up with a signboard announcing that these are for sale.

The signboard reading, "Ekhane nijashwa kholar (RBM) it (brick) bikri kora hoy," was put up by Towhidul Islam, a contractor of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), who is selling the bricks.

He is carrying out a Tk 5 crore repair and development work on Sonargaon Janapath.

Towhidul, however, denied the allegation of encroachment, and said the earth was dumped for fixing the alignment of the 120 feet wide road, and that it might have created a few square feet of extra ground.

He also kept around 70 drums of tar, meant for the road work, on the grabbed land.

Asked about the signboard, he avoided a direct answer and said the place would be cleared after finishing the road work in the next two months.

Prof Asad Ullah Khan, convener of environment affairs of Uttara Association, said the lake measured 5km long even in 2004, but it was reduced to 3.81km now due to grabbing over the years.

Nazrul Islam, executive engineer of DNCC's zone-1, said the lake was under the custody of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), so it would have to take action.

Chairman of Rajuk GM Jainal Abedin Bhuiya said the authority would conduct an eviction drive shortly under the Uttara Lake Development project.

Special attention will be given to grabbing, which is going on, and action will be taken, he told The Daily Star.

The project consists of a 20 feet wide circular driveway, a bridge, culverts, dredging, and closing the outlets discharging sewerage and solid waste into the lake, said the project director of Uttara Lake Development, Monowar Hossain.

The PD said already some bricks were removed from the grabbed portion, and excavation would be done in that place during implementation of the project.

Rajuk sources said initially there was a plan to beautify the lake but it was dropped due to a shortage of fund, with the government approving Tk 35 crore instead of the proposed Tk 85 crore.