Flats will be allocated to the affected land owners of the adjoining areas of the 'Hatirjheel-Begunbari Project' by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) at the end of this year.
RAJUK has taken the decision to compensate those who lost their habitation due to the implementation of the project. The state-run organisation Rajuk plans to handover the flats to the owners within December 2014, said Rajuk officials. ASM Raihanul Ferdous, director of the Hatirjheel-Begunbari Project told the Dhaka Tribune, "We have already started to construct the two multi-storied buildings as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has promised to compensate the affected people." "We will publish notices in the national newspapers by October this year inviting application from the victims for flat allocation. We will identify the genuinely affected land owners through testing the validity of documents," he added. The government acquired a total of 219.9490 acres of land for the Hatirjheel-Begunbari Lake development project of which 139.9693 acres were privately owned by 500 people. In the inauguration programme of the project, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said steps were being taken for the rehabilitation of those affected by the project. According to her commitment, Rajuk started constructing two 16-storied buildings each having 56 flats. Raihanul said, "After distributing a total of 112 flats between the selected land owners, we will sell rest of the flats to general people, if we are left with any." The construction of the 300 acre Hatirjheel Project stretching from behind Hotel Sonargaon at city's Karwan bazaar to Bansree, started in 2004 and the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved it in 2008. Engineering Construction Battalion of the Bangladesh Army has been implementing the project, under the supervision of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and Rajuk. Bangladesh University Engineering and Technology (Buet) is also a consultant to the project.