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Huge roadside lands unused for years

Land Management Policy-2015 yet to be approved


Published : 26 Nov 2019 09:21 PM | Updated : 06 Sep 2020 10:11 AM

The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has been facing serious difficulties in leasing out and using thousand acres of lands across the country as the Land Management Policy-2015 (Amended) has not yet been approved. As a result, the RHD responsible for the construction and maintenance of highways and bridges, failed to collect revenue for the last five years from those who are using its lands.

Earlier in 2015, the cabinet approved the draft of the ‘Land Management Policy’ aiming at ensuring proper use of RHD’s thousand acres of land in order to collect revenue. Finally, the final draft was published this month on the website titled - Land Management Policy-2015 (Revised) of the Department of Roads and Highways. The ministry is approving the draft policy soon.

In the light of this policy, the Directorate of Roads and Highways will have permission to use the land adjacent to the road, development of land and enhancement of roads. Under this policy, land leasing will be given to the filling stations along the road.

There are 700 CNG filling stations and about one hundred petrol pumps on the highways across the country. Being stuck in the Ministry, their lease fees have been outstanding for 5 years. In the light of the new lease policy, the owners of each filling station will have to pay more than Tk one crore as lease fees per year.

However, the owners of the filling stations rejected the proposal saying that the amount fixed is too high and it is impossible to pay that much now. The policy is expected to be finalized within two months, but 5 years have passed since then. Farhan Noor, secretary general of Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workshop Owners Association, said their organization protested after the announcement of the policy.

Farhan Noor said, he had opposed the idea of the lease. They demanded charging a fixed rate for the land lease which they said was more practical. In the light of the policy, beautification work is underway on the Dhaka airport roads. Road Transport and Bridge Minister Obaidul Quader said that the government had already begun to beautify the roadside land in the capital which in fact, started long before the policy has been approved.

The works so far include implementing further beautification. About 80 percent of the road work has been completed, he mentioned saying, the Prime Minister would be inaugurating the works soon after the approval of the policy. Abed Mansur, chief executive officer of Vinyl World, said, the aesthetic enhancement of the airport road is at its last stage. Green is covering two sides of the road. About 300 modern electric poles have been installed under the Beauty Enhancement Project on the Banani Airport Road.

A total of 290 sets of digital LED electric lamps, 800 'set garden lights, 150 garden benches have been installed and 12 digital passenger cantonments are in the works, he added. Besides, 12 RHD service points are being constructed where there will be public toilets, ATM booths, vending machines, breast feeding zones, free pure food water, charging stations, money changers, police boxes, information booths, mini scan corners and cash in recharge points.

Regarding the policy, he said, “One of the beauties of the road is to plant trees. Hundreds of indigenous species, including bonsai, are planted here. Most of these plants need 4 to 5 years to come to a defined structure. Golam Jelani, Senior Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridge, said, steps were taken as part of the ongoing process of policy. Now it will be an inter-ministerial meeting.