The construction of the Mirpur-Agargaon link road in the capital is likely to miss another deadline as authorities claim they do not know of when the project will be completed.
Earlier, officials of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) said the construction was supposed to be finished by June this year.
The authorities added that the link road was slated to be completed by the end of 2014.
The state-run agency DNCC authority blamed the procrastination on the country’s current political state.
Although construction started in 2010, the DNCC suspended its work because of difficulties in
acquiring land for the project.
I
t resumed construction again in 2012.
The densely populated Mirpur area in the city faces huge traffic congestion due to a lack of proper road networks in the area.
Therefore, the link road was proposed in the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Master Plan in 1994 that explained the urgency of such a road to streamline traffic movement.
Local people and laborers said the deadline had passed but the DNCC has yet to complete the land-acquiring.
It would need at least another year to compl
ete the road, they said.
The city co
rporation high-ups, however, refuted what the locals described.
Md Tazul Islam, a resident in the area adjoining the proposed road, told the Dhaka Tribune that although the city corporation initiated the project a year ago, it spent most of the time acquiring land, even then, they still have not been able to finish doing so.
“So, finally to finish the project, it will need another year,” he added.
The resident said, occasionally they visited the site, but hardly saw any steps being taken to start construction.
DNCC Chief Engineer Brigadier General Mohammad Abul Khayer said, “At present, the construction work is being hampered by the opposition enforced hartals and blockades.”
“So, under the present circumstances it would be difficult to say when the construction project would be completed,” he added.
“The engineers and the laborers are unable to kick off construction as they cannot buy materials and carry them to the project site,” he added.
Brigadier General Khayer claimed that the land acquisition had been completed.
“We have acquired land carefully so that no landowner is affected. For this reason, additional time was needed to complete the land-acquisition,” he said.
During a recent visit to the project site, it was found that construction of only a small part of the road was completed, along with the sewer.
The proposed link road is to be built at a cost of Tk2.4b. The 3.5km-long and 60-feet wide link road, with four lanes and a footpath, will start from the Grameen Bank headquarters at Mirpur 2 to Agargaon.
It will connect to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Road, Statistics Road and Begum Rokeya Sarani in Agargaon and different intersections within the vicinity.
