City awaits nod for six new roads
City Correspondent
Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) says that it could not start construction work of six new roads as the projects have been waiting for the approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) for the last six years. Once implemented, the projects involving more than Tk 1,000 crore will reduce the city's traffic congestion significantly, DCC officials said. A high official of Dhaka Urban Transport Project (DUTP) of DCC said lack of adequate number of wide roads connecting the city's eastern part with the western region is one of the main reasons behind the persisting traffic problem. Most of the wide roads are between the northern and southern part of the city whereas a very few are between the eastern and western part, he said. "There are no straight road networks to enable people to commute from Rampura, Gulshan and Baridhara areas to Dhanmondi and Mohammadpur areas. They are forced to use other roads creating traffic jam," he said. DCC, the implementing agency of the projects, has already completed all the preparations. "The new roads will greatly facilitate traffic movement and reduce congestion," said Ashiqur Rahman, project director of Hatirjheel elevated road project. He said the planned roads will have the option of making extension in future according to the increase in the volume of traffic. The elevated road stretching from Tongi Diversion Road to Rampura will cost Tk 530 crore. It will connect Panthapath-Sonargaon road with Rampura Bridge. "The proposed elevated road is expected to ensure speedy traffic flow between the eastern and western parts of the city," said Ashiqur Rahman. Meanwhile, many land grabbers turned their eyes to the 237-acre Hatirjheel wetland as the authorities are yet to develop it for constructing the elevated road. Parts of the Hatirjheel-Begunbari canal are being filled up for setting up CNG filling stations. The authorities had planned to construct the elevated road to save the canal. "If the land is filled up in this way, the purpose of constructing an elevated road would be meaningless as the water retention point would be blocked," said a senior official of DCC. The expenditure for an underground road from Shaheed Jahangir Gate at Cantonment to Shewrapara Rokeya Sarani, will be Tk 378 crore. "The Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC) will finance the construction of these two roads," said a high official of DCC. A road, 80 feet wide and 3.66 kilometres long, will be constructed from Paikpara Ansar Camp in Mirpur to Kochukhet via Shewrapara at a cost of Tk 109 crore. Another 60 feet wide and 3.63 kilometres long road will stretch from Grameen Bank headquarters in Mirpur to Pongu Hospital via Monipur, Pirerbagh and west Agargaon. The estimated cost of this project is Tk 66 crore. The two other roads are Zia Colony-Mirpur Section-12, to be constructed at a cost of Tk 74 crore, and Hazaribagh- Beribadh road that will cost Tk 10 crore. According to the project officials, the construction of these roads could have been completed by June 2008 if the Ecnec had approved it in due time.
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