The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) is about to miss yet another deadline in completing the third phase of the Uttara Residential Model Town project due to irregularities and lack of monitoring by the authorities concerned and project contractors.
Both officials at Rajuk and owners of the plots under the project told the Dhaka Tribune that development was progressing at snail pace and it did not seem like the authorities concerned would be able to hand over the plots to the owners in time.
All the plots were supposed to be handed over by the end of this year, as Firoj Ahmed, project director of the third phase, told the Dhaka Tribune in July last year.
“Out of a total of 8,295 plots, we have already handed around 4,000 plots over to the owners, and the rest will be handed over by December next year,” he said.
To date Rajuk has been able to hand over only 500 more plots to the owners, and at this rate it will be impossible to meet the deadline, sources at Rajuk said.
Officials concerned said the development of the third phase of the project was 75% complete since it began 15 years ago.
A Rajuk official alleged that the project has been delayed because of frequent changes in the project’s administration, lack of planning, interference of ministers and MPs, indiscipline, and locals protesting the land acquisition and their legal action against Rajuk.
Work has been suspended several times within this period due to the increasing cost of construction material as well as conflicts between Rajuk authorities and the contractors, which resulted in the contractors employing only a few workers delaying the project’s progress, sources said.
During a visit to the project around 11:30am, this correspondent found no one present at the Rajuk project office at the site. A few construction workers were seen working, who told the Dhaka Tribune that the workforce was vastly insufficient for such a project.
Most of the roads and a 9-km lake under the project has been built, while the construction of 12 bridges and several culverts and laying of utility lines – water, power, gas – are still under way.
Sources said development of Sectors 15, 16 and 18 were complete, and the development of Sector 17 was in progress.
These four sectors make up the third phase project. Of them, Sector 18 is the only project of flats by Rajuk, and the other three are of plots.
When contacted on Monday, Firoj Ahmed, the project director, said: “Most of the development work is complete and we have already handed over more than 50% of plots to the owners. The rest will be handed over after the construction of roads and bridges and installation of utility lines are finished.” But he could not say when.
Asked about the project delay, he said the main obstacle was the cases filed by the people affected by land acquisition.
“The first and second phases took longer than expected to finish for the same reason,” he said.
Timeline: Third phase
Rajuk started planning the third phase of Uttara Residential Model Town in 1999-2000, and the project took off after being approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) in May 2000.
Rajuk started land acquisition in 2000-2001 and acquired a total of 812.8 hectares of land. The project was supposed to be completed by 2002, but it did not due to different problems. The construction finally began in 2004.
In 2006, the project deadline was extended to 2009 in the cost was estimated to be around Tk2,340 crore. But Rajuk could not meet that deadline either.
Finally, in 2011 Rajuk announced the names of plot winners and started handing over the plots.