Bangladesh Bank (BB) plans to construct several more buildings for extending its headquarters, buying 3 acres of wetland, which is located behind the central bank but belonged to Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).
A tussle has already been surfaced between BB and Rajuk over the purchase of the 3 acres of land. Rajuk has so far turned down the BB proposal for purchasing of the 3 acres land.
To resolve this stand off, Bank and Financial Institutions Division has arranged an inter-ministerial meeting, which will be held today at the finance division auditorium.
The meeting, which will be presided over by Banking Division additional secretary Amalendu Mukherjee, will be attended, among others, by the officials of Dhaka City Corporation South, Bangladesh Bank, and Rajuk.
Officials of the banking division, however, fear that the local environmentalist will definitely strongly oppose the idea to fill-up the wet land to construct high-rise buildings as they believe that entire Motijheel areas will be flooded in the rainy season if the remaining wetland is filled up.
Rajuk is yet to fill up the wet land for the construction of its proposed research center on this piece of land, fearing possible flooding at the commercial hub during rainy season. Rajuk had undertaken a plan 22 years back to construct a planning and research institute on this wetland but finally it could not be implemented as yet.
Apart from that, the land ministry has a strict law against any construction of buildings on any wetland.
In a recent move, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank Abul Kashem sent a letter to finance minister AMA Muthih to allocate required financial assistance from the ministry to purchase the aforesaid land. Bangladesh Bank has reportedly allocated a huge amount of funds for purchasing the land behind its quarters.
Besides, in a separate letter, central bank also requested the banking secretary M Aslam Alam to lobby at the housing and public works ministry to manage the management of Rajuk for constructing of new buildings.