When the Hatirjheel project was first opened for public in January 2013, life became very easy for private jobholder Nurun Nahar, a resident of Banasree in the capital's Rampura.
Earlier, she had to travel around the Mouchak and Moghbazar intersections, known for horrible traffic, to go to her Karwan Bazar office every morning on crowded buses.
The project, which she could easily cross on a rickshaw, cut down her travel time from 1-2 hours to just 20-30 minutes.
However, only a few months later, the project was made off limits for rickshaws, making it hard for commuters. As the authorities did not arrange any public transport for people, who do not own cars and cannot afford CNG-autorickshaw and taxicab rides every day, things were back to square one for them.
Since then, hundreds of commuters, especially from the Rampura area, can be be seen standing every morning in front of the TV centre entrance, waiting for a private car to drop them to the FDC end of the project.
“After Hatijheel was made off limits for rickshaws, there is no other way for us to cross the project to go to Karwan Bazar. If one has the time to wait here, private cars sometimes drop them to the other end in exchange of Tk20. That in fact is the only way out right now,” Nurun Nahar said. “Does it mean that the Hatirjheel project is only meant for the rich?” she inquired.
The project was initially launched by city development authority RAJUK with aims to improve the capital's waterlogging problem and sewerage system, give the city a facelift and more importantly to ease the horrible traffic in the Tajgaon, Gulshan, Badda, Rampura, Mouchak and Moghbazar areas.
Although it is already the biggest ever development project implemented in Dhaka, at least 40% of the work is still undone. Despite being included in the initial project plan, the authorities concerned have not made any arrangement for public transport.
Another Banasree resident architect Sajedul Islam, whose office is in Karwan Bazar, said: “Just laying a connecting road cannot ensure citizen service. It will never be possible to reap the full benefits of the Hatirjheel project unless the authorities arrange for public transport for the middle class commuters, who are a majority.”
Jamal Akhter Bhuiyan, director of the Hatirjheel Project, told the Dhaka Tribune recently: “We have plans for a public bus service, but it will take some time.”
In April this year, RAJUK floated a tender asking transport companies to start a bus service exclusive for the project. “But we could not move too far ahead with it because the interested companies were not qualified enough,” he said.
He assured that they had been planning to float a fresh tender soon in order to attract the qualified companies.
According to the Special Works Organisation (SWO) of the Bangladesh Army, who has been implementing and monitoring the project, they have kept space for bus stoppages at certain points inside the project as per the initial plan.
RAJUK sources said they had already built an 8.8km express road, 8km service road, four 477.25m bridges, 8.8km footpath, 9.8km lakeside walkway, three 260m viaducts, and several overpasses, intersections and roundabouts.
The much-coveted Hatirjheel project on a 122.21 hectare area in the heart of the city was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) in October 2007. The work for the three-year project began in December 2008.
Of the total project cost of Tk1,971.3 crore, RAJUK is spending Tk1,113.07 crore while the government's Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED) is spending Tk276 crore and Dhaka Wasa Tk86.67 crore.