Rajuk to invite applications for 1,000 plots in Jhilmil in Aug

The city development authorities, the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, will invite applications from the public in August to allot some 1,000 residential plots under the Jhilmil housing project in Keraniganj on the outskirts of Dhaka.
‘We will invite applications in July or August from the people who want to purchase plots at the project site,’ the Rajuk chairman, Nurul Huda, told New Age on Thursday.
The Rajuk will also construct some 10,000 flats under the same project to sell out among the people by 2015.
The official said that a committee was now preparing the guidelines for distributing the plots and flats of the project.
In 1997 the Rajuk undertook the initiative for the project at Suvadda, Chunkatia and Teghria in Keraniganj to ease the pressure of housing on downtown Dhaka. The project site is five kilometres off the zero point in the capital.
The project, which has been revised thrice, is scheduled to be completed by 2012. This time-frame may be extended for two years, said sources in the Rajuk.
In 2001 and 2002 the Rajuk invited applications for allotment of plots under the Jhilmil project after acquiring 381.19 acres of land and allotted 525 plots. However, the plots are yet to be handed over, the Rajuk officials admitted.
Almost 75 per cent of the land development work for some 1,000 plots of different sizes in this phase has already been completed, said the Jhilmil project director, Anwar Hossain.’The rest will be completed by the end of the year,’ he added.
The Rajuk acquired 381 acres of land at a cost of Tk 335.73 crore in the first phase. The city development authorities are now in the process of acquiring 1,150 acres in the second phase that is likely to require Tk 3,082 crore, said the official.
The Rajuk is also planning to expand the project area by acquiring another 1,200 acres of land stretching up to Rajendrapur bazar, said Hossain.
Basic Dredging Company Ltd secured the work order as the project contractor on 26 December, 2006 to complete earth-filling for the project by December 2008. But the company has completed only 70 per cent of the work till date. Officials concerned said the earth-filling was now expected to be complete by June-July 2010.
The government in May, 1998 estimated the project cost at Tk 136.17 crore, which was later revised upwardly to Tk 335.73 crore and approved on 27 April, 2005.
The authorities sent a second revised proposal of Tk 360 crore on 13 March, 2006 for the project but failed to get it approved.
And the Rajuk authorities have decided to increase the estimate in the third revised proposal to about Tk 500 crore, said another official of the Rajuk.
The official said the estimated cost had been increased as some new components like water treatment plants, waste treatment plants and methodological changes in earth-filling work were included in the project.

Courtesy of NewAge