The people, who lost their lands during the construction of the Hatirjheel-Begunbari project, have to wait another year for compensation as the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) cannot hand the flats over to them before June 2015 because of confusion over the actual number of evicted people and some internal problems.
Rajuk is still looking for people who were genuinely affected when the place was given a facelift and before the full completion of the project, the handover of the flats will not be possible, for at least another year, officials said.
Earlier, the government decided to compensate the land owners with flats as part of the project within December 2014.
“We cannot complete the project by the end of the year because of some internal problems, one of which is the slow pace of construction,” said Md Arefur Rahman, director of the Hatirjheel-Begunbari project.
He said Rajuk had published notices in national dailies inviting applications from real victims who lost their lands.
“A total of 201 applications were received and all of them claimed compensation. We will verify the applications and documents and will begin delivering the flats,” he added.
Arefur said they are hopeful about completing the project by June next year.
“Construction of a multi-storeyed building is finished and that of another one is underway,” he said, adding that the completed structure has yet to get utility connections, which is why more time is needed for the handover.
According to the Rajuk plan, it will construct two 16-storeyed buildings with 56 flats measuring 850 square feet each.
The 56 flats will be distributed among the people who lost their lands and the remaining 56 will be sold to the general people.
“The money generated from the selling of the flats will be used for compensating other victims, if any,” officials said.
Construction of the 300-acre Hatirjheel-Begunbari project began back in 2004 and the Executive Committee of National Economic Council approved it in 2008.
Engineering Construction Battalion of the Bangladesh Army is implementing the project under the supervision of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and Rajuk.