Says metro rail route won’t be allowed to run through Sangsad Bhaban complex
Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Abdul Hamid has vowed not to allow the proposed metro rail road to run through the parliament premises as it would spoil the architectural splendour of the famed complex.
“I will not allow it within the 215-acre premises of Sangsad Bhaban under any circumstances,” the speaker has told The Daily Star. The speaker will raise the issue with the prime minister on October 20 before the Sangsad goes into its 11th session on that day.
His remarks came amid reports that the government had agreed to the Bangladesh Air Force’s proposal to realign the metro line through the Khamarbari side of the parliament premises. Agreeing to the BAF suggestion would mean shelving the original plan to have the metro rail line run through Bijoy Sarani.
Official sources say that the decision to change the route was officially conveyed to the project’s sole foreign donor, Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina endorsed the finance ministry’s report on the controversial route alignment.
The prime minister approved the changed plan before her departure for New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly last month, said the sources, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivities associated with the subject.
It is understood that the Secretary of the Roads Division has informed Jica that the government will opt for the Khamarbari route through taking up a stretch of green lawn on the eastern side of the Sangsad complex.
The changed plan means that an estimated 55 metres of the Sangsad complex will now be lost to the metro route.
The government is yet to respond, however, to Jica’s request that the official consent of the parliament authorities to use the land be first obtained, said the sources.
A senior Jica official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rather tersely, “We are observing the situation.” He noted that funds allocation for the metro rail still depended on the progress made by the government.
Meanwhile, as controversy builds up around the metro rail plan, time appears to running out for the project to get underway.
An appraisal of the plan with the Japanese authorities must be done by November in order to meet the February deadline for a signing of the loan deal, the Jica official said.
Before that, however, the government must finalise the route alignment through ascertaining the number of households that would be affected on the alternative route and the amount of land that would be required for the ambitious project.
“We cannot go for any action over the new route until the government meets these prerequisites,” he said.
Jica has pledged to provide 80 percent of the $ 2.7-billion estimated cost for the construction of the 20.1 kilometre metro line stretching from Uttara third phase to Bangladesh Bank.
The original route plan had Bijoy Sarani as part of the proposed rail.
The Bangladesh Air Force objected to Bijoy Sarani, arguing that it would be an obstruction to aviation related operations from the Tejgaon airfield nearby during emergencies.
The BAF instead suggested that the route be diverted along Sangsad Avenue through Khamarbari, taking up a stretch of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban area.
Speaker Abdul Hamid, who is emphatic about his objections to the plan, has lately been vocal against the air force proposal.
He said he would exert his position as custodian of parliament on the issue. “It is my duty to protect the institutional sanctity and architectural heritage of the Sangsad Bhaban,” he said.
The Sangsad Bhaban is regarded as an architectural marvel built by Louis I Kahn, the internationally known architect who designed the Bangladesh parliament building as a lotus floating on the lake.
Experts on the metro project’s technical steering committee earlier dismissed the BAF’s objection as being without basis, noting that the air force operated all its major aircraft from Shahjalal International Airport.
They make the case that since the 22-metre high Bangabandhu Novo Theatre already exists in the air funnel of the airstrip, the objection to the 19-metre elevated route of the metro rail sounds illogical.
An alteration in the route, note the experts, will compel the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council in Farmgate to tear down a couple of its tall buildings. It also clashes with a ramp of the proposed elevated expressway.
-With The Daily Star input
