Red-tape stops 3 new roads

Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is yet to start the construction work of the three important roads in the city due to bureaucratic tangle though the initiative was taken in 2004.
The roads are Grameen Bank to Pangu Hospital via west Agargaon, Darussalam to Kachukhet Road crossing Rokeya Sarani and Hazaribagh Kalunagar to Jafarbadh Bheribadh.
Rajuk also has failed to construct two roads from Notre Dame College to Janapath Sarak via behind the Bangladesh Bank colony and Hosaf Towar, Malibagh to Janapath.
The construction work of four more roads--Bijoy Sarani to Nabisco, Ring road around the Hatirjheel and Zia Colony of Dhaka cantonment to Mirpur cantonment via behind section-12 of Mirpur and 300 feet wide road from Kuril Biswa Road to Purbachal are, however, going on.
Executive Engineer of Zone-7 of DCC Abdur Razzak said the proposed road stretching from Grameen Bank to Pangu Hospital via west Agargaon is now under process of land acquisition.
The proposal on land acquisition for Darussalam to Kachukhet Road has been waiting for approval by the ministry concerned for last three months.
A 3.64 km long and 100 feet wide road from Darussalam to Ansar Camp to Kachukhet Road crossing Rokeya Sarani will be constructed at a cost of Tk 199 crore.
This road will reduce the traffic jams on section-10 and section-1 of Mirpur as it will connect its east and west portions, said Razzak.
Both the roads were taken under the master plan of Rajuk in 1995 for which Rajuk did not give approval to construct any building in the area but an unplanned urbanisation is going on, he said.
Executive Engineer of Zone-3 of DCC Mohammad Mainuddin said the project to construct a 5.33 km long and 20 feet wide road stretching from Hazaribagh Kalunagar to Bheribadh was sent back to the LGRD ministry from planning commission in 2008.
Recently, LGRD ministry asked DCC to submit the proposal to the ministry after revising the estimated cost.
"We have prepared the development project proforma (DPP) of the road, including some other components estimating the cost at Tk 11 crore, which was Tk 7.81 crore initially," he said, adding that they will submit the proposal soon.
The construction work of two roads--Star Gate Ramna to Janapath via Notre Dame College and Kamalapur and Hosaf Tower, Malibagh to Janapath, which were taken in 2005, are also yet to be started.
Rajuk constructed the road partially from Romna Gate to Notre Dame College but could not construct the road from Notre Dame College to Janapth via behind the Bangladesh Bank Colony as it is on land of other organisations, said an official at Rajuk.
The initiative of constructing the road remains uncertain also for not filling up a portion of retention area of the pumping station of Wasa at Janpath, he said.
The DPP of the Malibagh to Janpath road is in the housing ministry but it is yet to be approved as the alignment of the road has been changed under the draft of detailed area plan, said another official of Rajuk.
The construction work of 6.30 km long and 60 feet wide road stretching from Zia Colony of Dhaka cantonment to Mirpur cantonment via behind Section-12 of Mirpur has been going on since 2006.
The work will take yet more time to be completed though it was supposed to be completed by January 2008, sources said.
The works of Hatirjheel ring road is also going on, which is scheduled to be completed by June 2010.
Prof Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology whose team conducted the feasibility study on the project said 70 percent work of road embankment has so far been completed (7km out of 11km) and the rest will be done by June 2010.
The land acquisition work except of a few places has already been done and it is expected to be completed after Ramadan, he said.
The excavation of the lake will also be done by June next year and the completion of the project will take time as it needed time to settle the embankment for constructing the road, he said.
Bijoy Sarani to Tejgaon road will again miss the timeline, as the construction of the overpass will not be completed by next December. The road is scheduled to be open in December this year.
It will take March 2010 to complete the whole work of the road while 70 percent work of overpass has already completed, said an official of Rajuk.
The 1,114 metres long and 60 feet wide connecting road was inaugurated on December 16, 2008. But it was not open for public at that time as the overpass on railway line could not be completed and was supposed to be opened on March 26 this year, but Rajuk has missed the dateline and extended the time till December.
Construction work of a 300 feet wide road stretching from Kuril Biswa Road to Purbachal by Rajuk is also going on.