Looking for an alternative route amid the growing port activities, Chittagong Development Authority (CPA) and Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) have jointly planned to take up a 17-kilometer elevated expressway project to connect Karnaphuli Bridge and Patenga beach with at least five landing stations. Keeping in mind the future requirement, CDA chairman Abdus Salam put forward a proposal to the Prime Minister for constructing the elevated expressway to have an alternative route in the commercially important port city of Chittagong.
The route—Karanaphuli Bridge to Airport through CDA Avenue-Sheikh Mujib Road—is the key road in the port city of Chittagong as airport-bound passengers face immense sufferings due to the absence of alternative routes.
“We don’t have any alternative route to CDA Avenue-Sheikh Mujib Road. Considering the future rush of mechanised transport movement following increased port activities, I put forward the proposal. And the Prime Minister gave me a patient hearing,” CDA chairman Salam told the news agency.
Responding to a question, he said the proposal was later placed at a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Shipping Ministry. “The committee gave directives to the CPA and CDA for necessary steps. We (CPA and CDA) have reached a decision to move ahead with the proposed plan.”
A senior official at the CPA said its chairman had a meeting with the CDA chairman. But, CPA chairman Rear Admiral Nizam Uddin could not be reached as he is now out of the country.
Meanwhile, the CDA chairman said the Port Authority uses around 80 percent of the roads while the remaining 20 percent is used by general purposes. “But the CPA hasn’t spent a single Taka for the road communication development in the city.”
He said the country’s key seaport will turn into a regional port today or tomorrow. “We’ve to move forward with the plan right now. If we make further delay, it’ll face various difficulties.”
The port users, however, said there should be a proper planning to take forward the proposal with alternative provisions ensuring the maximum benefit from such a project.
“In fact, the elevated expressway is a very effective plan. But there should be a provision so that a suspension railway (elevated railway with hanging train cars) could be introduced below the expressway,” SM Nurul Hoque, vice- president of Bangladesh-Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BMCCI), told the UNB correspondent.
Nurul Hoque, also a former FBCCI director, said the port authority needs to elicit opinions from city planners, experts and common people through online for better planning.
“Port growth increases gradually. We need to have a planning right now to ensure maximum benefit for the port users and keep roads free from traffic jams,” he said.
Nurul Hoque said people will reduce dependence on cars and busses if the mass transit is possible with suspension train below the planned elevated expressway.
Another port user and former director of FBCCI M Amirul Haque said he does not believe that the CPA will do it which could not appoint an operator for the New Moorning Container Terminal over the last five years. “If you say that the CDA chairman will do it, I can trust. He’ s the only man who can do it as he is a professional man,” he added.
Amirul Haque said there should be a proper planning to ensure maximum benefit. “I don’t think the CPA has the proper planning.”
-With The Independent input
