Tk 289cr project to rid Ctg of waterlogging

The government yesterday gave a go-ahead to a Tk 289 crore project for digging a 2.9-kilometre canal in Chittagong to rid the port city of waterlogging during the rainy season.
The approval was given at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters after the meeting that the canals in Chittagong city will be reclaimed and some new ones will be dug. Some ponds will also be built to preserve water.
Hasina asked authorities concerned to reclaim 19 canals, including the Chaktai canal, to free the port city from waterlogging, according to a planning ministry official who was present at the meeting.
BNP-backed Mayor of Chittagong City Corporation Manzur Alam recently alleged that waterlogging could not be stopped due to non-cooperation from the government side.
Replying to journalists' queries on this, the planning minister said Alam never came to the ministry to discuss which projects could be taken for the development of the port city.
The project to dig a canal from Bahaddarhat to the Karnaphuli river is expected to end by June 2016 and the Chittagong City Corporation will implement it.
Two other projects worth Tk 214 core were okayed in the Ecnec meeting -- one is for procuring container and terminal equipment and the other for constructing a bridge on the Kushiara river in Sunamganj district.