State Minister for Water Resources Zaheed Farooque on Sunday said the Dhaka-Narayanganj-Dhaka (DND) Project is expected to be completed by 2021, mentioning that around 20 lakh people will be benefited from the project, reports BSS.
“The prime minister and the ECNEC members are well-informed about the importance of the DND project…the tenure of the project has increased one year. And the project’s works will be completed by 2021,” he told a function at Shiddhirganj, Narayanganj.
The function was arranged to inaugurate the pump installation works of the DND Drainage Management Development Project.
Speaking as the chief quest, Farooque said the DND project is being implemented so that 20 lakh people dwelling in the project area can live in a safe environment.
“We have been dreaming that Bangladesh will be a middle-income country by 2021 and a developed one by 2041. And that’s why the project will be implemented,” he said.
The state minister said the DND project was first implemented from 1962 to 1968 and illegal structures were set up later in the project area due to urbanisation.
“As illegal structures were set up by grabbing arable land and DND area, water-logging situation is created there every year,” he said.
Farooque said the works of a new Taka 558-crore project began in 2017, but now it is estimated that about Taka 1,300 crore will be required to complete the project as there are illegal structures, mosques, madrasahs and electricity and water supply lines in the project area.
Once the project is implemented, he said, about 20 lakh will get relief from water-logging. Narayanganj-4 MP Shamim Osman, Water Resources Secretary Kabir Bin Anwar and Engineer in Chief of Bangladesh Army Major General Ibne Fazal Shayekhuzzaman, among others, were present.
