The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

The under-construction project of Buriganga Bridge-III in Basila has been shelved due to fund constraints.

Earlier, the authorities of the project sought financial assistance from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) for construction of the approach road, linking Satmasjid Road to the bridge, said official of the project.

The KFAED authority had, at the start of the project, rejected the request for funding the approach road, said officials of the Roads and Highways Department (R&HD).

The bridge would lose its meaning without the approach road. Currently a twenty-foot wide road winds its way to link up the Beri Bandh (cross-dam) with Basila, they added.

The R&HD was again writing to the KFAED authority through the ERD seeking financial assistance for the approach road. Only a small area needed to be acquired to extend the Satmasjid Road up to Beri Bandh and thus create easy access to the Basila Bridge, said an engineer of the department.

"The original master plan shows Satmasjid Road continuing up to Beri Bandh, but it was never possible because a powerful politically-backed syndicate of land grabbers illegally occupied the area and built a tin-shed market," said an official of the project.

Recently, the syndicate put up a huge signboard announcing launching of a construction work of a multi-storied commercial-cum-housing project.

"The area is clearly a public land under the Ministry of Land, I cannot understand how these people could get Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (RAJUK) permission to build such a project on a public land," said the project official.

"If this planned high-rise building is constructed on the designated approach road it would be time consuming to demolish it, now is the time for the government to take over the area," said residents of Katashur in Mohammadpur area.

The officials of the R&HD are hopeful of a positive response from the KFAED. They said anyone would understand how vital it is for the bridge to have a wide approach road for smooth flow of traffic.

"If the approach road is not built, a permanent traffic jam would grip the Mohammadpur area and many people would avoid using the bridge," said an engineer of the R&HD.

The Buriganga Bridge-III project costs Tk 49 crore is scheduled to be completed by 2010.

More than 30 per cent of the work has been completed well ahead of schedule. But the work is currently passing through a hurdle due to complications arising from further land acquisition.

Once completed the bridge would connect a vast area in Keraniganj linking Mawa in the south and Savar road in the north. With the start of the construction work, prices of land in Keraniganj have soared.

A huge volume of traffic, including heavy goods-loaded vehicle, will use the vital link between Dhaka and the southern and northern parts of the country, said traffic management experts.