The communications ministry on Wednesday started the groundwork for shifting Sarak Bhaban from the Supreme Court premises to the capital’s Tejgaon following a High Court order.
The communications minister, Obaidul Quader, on the day visited the Roads and Highways Department workshop, which has been selected for Sarak Bhaban at Tejgaon. The High Court on Tuesday ordered the handover of the building ‘A’ of Sarak Bhaban to the Supreme Court within a month.
Obaidul Quader had said earlier they had met the chief justice to give the RHD four months for handing over the building.
‘However the court refused our request and we got one month for the handover,’ he said.
The government had already signed a contract with the Asian Development Bank to construct a 10-storey and about 1.5 lakh square feet Sarak Bhaban at Tejgaon with a fund of Tk 123 crore, he said.
‘The new building’s physical work will start within November-December this year,’ the minister said, adding, ‘meantime, we will shift our property to a two-storey building and a four-storey steel frame at the workshop.’
Some of the property had already been shifted to the bridges division, he informed.
About the funding of the Padma Bridge project, Obaidul Quader said if the government had been strict with its July 2012 decision to build the bridge with its own funding, at least the construction work of the bridge would start by this time.
The RHD workshop is on an 18-acre land which also has equipment control and store divisions.
In a verdict last year, the Sarak Bhaban authorities ordered the handover of the land belonging to the Supreme Court.
But as the Sarak Bhaban authorities failed to comply with the order, the High Court issued an order charging them with contempt of court.
After that, the authorities sought more time to hand over the building ‘A’ and ‘MIS building’ to the Supreme Court.
The minister was accompanied, among others, by RHD chief engineer Mohammad Aminur Rahman Lasker.
-With New Age input
