The development of Purbachal New Town Project in the capital is going on at a snail’s pace as indifference of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) has started the project since 20 years ago.
Rajuk officials said the revised timeline of the 24,697-plot project is July, 1995 to December, 2015, where earlier it was from July 1995 to June 2012.
The government planned the satellite city Purbachal New Town Project in 1992 and land acquisition started in 1993.
The Purbachal project is situated at Rupgonj upazila of Narayanganj and Kaliganj upazila of Gazipur between river Balu and Sitalakhya in the north-east side of Dhaka, at a distance of 16 km from the Zero Point.
The Project area is divided into 30 sectors. Rajuk officials said the handover of plots in sectors 1, 3, 4, 5, 11, 13, 14 and 17, and in parts of sector 8, 9, 18, 20, 23, 29 will start by April 2014.
Site development work has been going on in 4,500 acres of Rupganj since 2002-2003 fiscal year. In 1,650 acres of land in Kaliganj, work started from January, 2013, but is facing uncertainty because of orders of the Supreme Court.
The High Court Division ordered Rajuk to suspend the development work following a petition filed by Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA). Later in response to an appeal by Rajuk the Appellate Division asked Rajuk to maintain the status quo until further order is issued on land development or any monetary transactions for the Gazipur part.
Officials of Rajuk said the site development work of 17 sectors was almost complete, and in other sectors development was going on. Road construction works in 12 sectors have been mostly completed. In six sectors road construction was ongoing. Out of 42 bridges, the construction of 28 bridges was ongoing, and work progress was 70%.
However, the 300 feet wide Purbachal Link Road missed its completion deadline as the construction work is being conducted at a slow pace and keeps getting suspended frequently. Only half of it was completed within the scheduled time. Two major bridges on river Balu and Shitalakkha have been built, and about 70% of other bridges are complete. The two bridges were inaugurated along with Kuril flyover on October 4 last year.
Plots, roads, bridges, lakes and utility services have not been fully completed in any of the sectors. As for the utility facilities, only electric polls were set up in a few sectors.
Moreover, though the lands in the project were acquired, many of the land owners who sold their land to the government are still living in the project area.
Project Director Md Anwar Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune: “The project is going on in full swing. We will hand over the plots to owners by 2015.”
Asked about the delay of development completed in last 20 years, PD Anwar said, “I am not the person responsible for commenting on the project. You should contact the Rajuk chairman.”
Rajuk Chairman Nurul Huda was unavailable for comments.
Sources at Rajuk said the project was going at a slow pace because of frequent changes in Rajuk’s senior management, plans, interference of ministers and MPs, indiscipline and objection of local people protesting land acquisition.
