Work delaying on land acquisition hitch

The elevated expressway project in Chattogram is being delayed as Bangladesh Railway has not yet allotted the required land for the project, resulting in city dwellers suffering.

Mahfuzur Rahman, project director of the elevated expressway and executive engineer of the Chattogram Development Authority (CDA), recently sent a letter to Bangladesh Railway -- seeking an explanation as to why the project's progress is being hampered by incomplete land acquisition.

Following the project director's letter, Bangladesh Railway Regional Land Allocation Committee held a meeting in Chittagong on November 20.

"We are unable to start the project from Dewanhat to Lalkhan Bazar due to the delay in the allocation of land from the BR. We are not being allocated the land by BR despite repeated requests," said Mahfuzur Rahman.

However, Sujon Chowdhury, chief estate officer of the BR (eastern), said, "We have already approved an allocation of a 0.70-acre land to CDA. We will hand it over to them after getting the railway ministry's approval.

Due to the delayed work, the suffering of the port city residents in their daily commute is to continue.

Istiak Ahmed, a resident of Cement Crossing area, said commuting on this road is an ordeal. "We are looking forward to the completion of this project."

Ecnec approved the mega project in July 2017. The original cost of the project was Tk 3,250.84 crore and it was scheduled to be completed in June 2020.

The updated cost of the project is Tk 4,298.95 crore, and the deadline has been shifted to June 2024, after two extensions.

This expressway is being constructed from Lalkhan Bazar to Patenga in four phases. The work of two phases is almost complete.

CDA initiated the project to develop smooth communication between Chattogram city and the districts and upazilas in the south of the division, cut distance and cost for commuters in the city and easy movement to and from the port and airport.

Earlier, CDA constructed two flyovers connecting Bahaddarhat and Lalkhan Bazar areas in the city. After the implementation of the expressway, the two ends of the city will be connected through the flyovers and the elevated expressway.

The 16km elevated expressway will be a four-lane path with a total width of 16.5 metres. It will have 24 ramps at nine points from Lalkhan Bazar to the airport. With the ramps, the total length of the expressway will be 28.5 km.

The ramps will facilitate entry and exit at Tigerpass, Agrabad, Barik Building, Nimtala Biswa Road, customs area, CEPZ, Karnaphuli EPZ, Katghar area, the sea-beach and airport intersections.

CDA opened the 6.8km "Akhtaruzzaman Flyover" from Muradpur to Lalkhan Bazar on June 16 in 2017.