Land acquisition draft approved

The cabinet yesterday approved the draft Dhaka Elevated Expressway Project (Land Acquisition) Act 2011, an exclusive law to avoid legal tangles and ensure timely implementation of the project.
The step was taken so that people likely to be affected by land acquisition cannot go to court halting construction of the 26-kilometre expressway, said a minister after the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Secretariat.
“Each of the people affected would be compensated. Those who will lose homes will be given government flats and rehabilitated properly,” the minister told The Daily Star, adding that the law will be ineffective once the land acquisition finishes.
The Tk 8,703 crore expressway from Shahjalal International Airport to Kutubkhali on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway will be built under the public-private partnership.
The first nine kilometres of the expressway -- from airport to Tejgaon -- will require 96 acres of land, of which 18 acres belong to private owners. Of the remaining 78 acres, 10 acres belong to the Cantonment Board, four to the Roads and Highways Department and the rest to Bangladesh Railway.
The project, expected to be finished by December 2013, is aimed to ease the capital's traffic movement by linking the northern part of the city to the central and southern parts, and touching some important commercial and business centres.
In yesterday's meeting, the PM said the government would take all necessary steps so that not a single area of the project suffers. She termed the expressway public interest project and asked all concerned to complete the work timely.
The cabinet meeting also approved the proposal of ratifying the UN convention on protecting the rights of migrant workers and their families.
Briefing the media after the meeting, PM's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad said every year Bangladesh sends around 4 lakh workers abroad and at present about 70 lakh Bangladeshis are working overseas immensely contributing to the country's economy.
The cabinet ratified the convention considering their contribution, he added.