Hopes public works state minister
With only 10 percent work remaining, the peripheral road along the capital’s Hatirjheel-Begunbari canals will likely be opened to the public on December 15, said State Minister for Housing and Public Works Abdul Mannan Khan yesterday.
With the works satisfactorily progressing, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be able to inaugurate the road on that day, said the state minister during a visit to the site.
The final layer of the 10-kilometre road, having lanes connecting Banglamotor, Dilu Road, Moghbazar, Ulan, Noyatola, Rampura, Begunbari and Kunipara areas, is being laid, he said.
The road will help ease traffic movement from Rampura to Karwan Bazar and Moghbazar, taking “only 10 minutes” from the present one and a half hours, he said.
The state minister said the roads will connect four bridges, four overpasses, two-lane expressways and U-loops near Rampura Bridge and have adjoining walkways and waterbus services, he said.
On cleaning the water of the canals, Prof Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), whose team conducted the project’s feasibility study, said it would take over one year.
Though 10-km diversion sewage pipes have been constructed on both sides of the canals to take in all the waste being dumped from adjoining areas, the sewage ends up at one end of the canals, he said.
As per another project, a pump station, having a drainage capacity of 5,000 cubic metres per day, will be constructed in Rampura to release the sewage in Sutibhola canal, some two kilometres away from Hatirjheel, he said.
In the meantime, a sewage treatment plant will be constructed in Dasherkandi, some five kilometres from Rampura. Once complete, the sewage will be drained directly from the canals to the plant and then the harmless liquid would be released in Balu river, situated in the capital’s outskirts, he said.
The designs for the pump station and sewage treatment plant will be complete by December 2012. Afterwards, the pump station will take one year while the treatment plant two years to be constructed if all goes as planned, he added.
Human and industrial wastes from different adjoining areas are released in the Hatirjheel-Begunbari canals through 11 outlets, making it difficult to keep the canals’ water clean, he said.
If the residents and industry owners do not change their mindset and the authorities concerned do not take proper steps, it will not be possible to keep the canals’ water clean, he added.
The Begunbari-Hatirjheel project is of two portions. The south portion comprises a two-way road from Sonargaon Hotel to Tongi Diversion along Begunbari canal and connected to Dilu Road.
It also has a road network from Tongi Diversion to Rampura Bridge along Hatirjheel canal, which is comprised of a one-way express road with a two-way side road. A two-lane expressway goes from Tongi Diversion via Gulshan to Pragati Sarani.
In the north portion, a road goes from Begunbari power house via Kunipara and Gulshan-1 to Merul Badda.
Rajuk, 16 Engineering Construction Battalion of Bangladesh Army, Dhaka Wasa and Local Government Engineering Department are jointly implementing the project while Buet is the consultant.
-With The Daily Star input
