Govt. approves project to upgrade Hatirjheel-Rampura-Demra route

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday approved a Bangladeshi Taka 1,209.60 crore project [around $142 million] in a bid to complete necessary land acquisition and rehabilitation works for upgrading the Hatirjheel-Rampura Bridge-Banasri-Shekherjaiga-Amulia-Demra Highway into four lane.

The approval came from a meeting of the ECNEC held at the NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area with ECNEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency report said.

Briefing the reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said that a total of nine projects were approved today involving an overall estimated cost of Taka 4,324.61 crore.

“Of the total project cost, Taka 4,249.09 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh portion, Taka 5.68 crore from the concerned organization’s own fund while the rest of Taka 69.84 crore as project assistance,” he said.

Out of the approved nine projects, eight are new while another one is a revised project.

The Planning Minister said the Department of Roads and Highways under the Road Transport and Highway’s Division will implement the project by December 2024 which will support the upgradation of this highway into four-lane.

Mannan said this is a supporting project and once the main project works of upgrading the 13.50 kilometer highway including Chattogram Road Circle and Tarabo Link Road is completed under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) initiative, people traveling from and to Chattogram and Sylhet from the capital would be benefitted with easier travel alongside smoother goods transportation.

The main project operations include some 25.47 hectares of land acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation alongside other necessary consultancy and procurement works.

The day’s ECNEC meeting also approved a project for conducting dredging at Mongla Port Channel with an estimated cost of Taka 793.73 crore in a bid to turn this port into an international one.

The main objective of the project is to ensure necessary depth for handling capacity of ships having 9.5 to 10 meter draft at Mongla Port Jetty.

The project operations include some 157.75 lakh cubic meter dredging by cutter suction dredger, some 58.34 lakh cubic meter dredging by trailing suction hopper dredger, construction of 2 lakh cubic meter dykes and 0.50 lakh cubic meter geotube dykes.

The Planning Minister said once this project is implemented, it would help to boost the capacity of Mongla Port to a big extent and thus meeting its growing demand for handling containers.

Referring to the approval of procurement of necessary vehicles and equipments for Rangpur City Corporation with Taka 113.69 crore, Mannan said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the meeting asked the authorities concerned including the Mayor of Rangpur City Corporation to ensure proper utilization of these proposed vehicles, machineries and equipments.

The Premier also renewed her directive to conduct necessary dredging in the river channels side by side maintaining austerity in the use of water.

The other projects approved in the meeting are construction of Rajshahi WASA Bhaban with Taka 65.99 crore, Bhandal Juri Water Supply project, 1st revised with an additional cost of Taka 958.85 crore, upgradation of Narayanganj Link Road (from Signboard to Chashara) into six-lane with Taka 449.58 crore, Agricultural Development at Rajshahi Division through extension of modern technology with Taka 147.03 crore, Protection of River Bank near Doarabazar upazila parishad complex, Rokkhibaor and Betura on the right side of River Surma under Sunamganj district with Taka 191.67 crore and Arial Kha River bank protection and dredging under Shibchar upazila in Madaripur district with Taka 394.47 crore.

Ministers and State Ministers attended the meeting while Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned were present.

Kamruzzaman