The government of Malaysia is expected to construct 22,000 apartments in Uttara and Kamrangir Char areas in Dhaka city and a 13km long flyover between Shantinagar and Jheelmil project at Mawa in Keraniganj.
Bangladesh and Malaysia yesterday signed three memorandums of understanding to implement three projects.
Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain and Malaysian government’s Special Envoy Utama S Samy Vellu signed the deals on behalf of their respective sides. The Malaysian government will put forward its financial proposals to the Bangladesh government as soon as possible to sign a final agreement for starting the construction works, the minister told reporters at the signing ceremony held at the ministry’s conference room.
He said, “We hope the Malaysian government will submit its proposals soon so that we can sign the final deal within next two months to start the construction work. They will complete building 22,000 apartments within 30 months since the award of work order.” Initially, the Malaysian government will construct 12,000 out of 18,000 apartments under Uttara apartment project.
The government had cancelled work order awarded to Ena Properties Ltd, a local construction firm owned by ruling Awami League MP Enamul Haque, as it failed to build the apartments within a stipulated time. And, the Housing and Public Works Ministry will construct the rest of apartments.
At the same time, the Malaysian authority will finalise proposals for building 10,000 new apartments in Kamrangir Char area after eviction of illegal occupants from the government land. Even though illegal occupants would be evicted from the government land, they would be rehabilitated under the new apartment project, Mosharraf said.
However, Bangladeshi government will continue talks with the Malaysian authorities to construct a 13km flyover between Shantinagar and Jheelmil project which had already been finalised.
“We will look at their proposal. If their proposal is acceptable, we will go ahead with it. Otherwise, we will look for another company or country to construct the flyover,” he added.
Samy Vellu informed that Iqbal Mohammed, chief of International Construction Company, will look after the construction works on behalf of the Malaysian government as its local agent.
He said, “If we go to construct the apartments with traditional technologies, it will take around six years to complete the work. But we are not going to do it. We will provide modern technologies and designs in the project as we can complete the works within 30 months since the work order.”