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‘Setu Bahaban now a white elephant’


Published : 15 Dec 2020 11:09 PM | Updated : 16 Dec 2020 10:21 AM

‘Setu Bhaban’ of the Bangladesh Bridges Authority has become a serious burden on the smooth movement of traffic, creating serious traffic jams in Mohakhali and Banani areas of the capital.

“Setu Bhaban is now a burden. It has created a ‘bottleneck’ at Mohakhali in Dhaka Mymensingh road. Now, we have to demolish this building in order to reduce the traffic congestion,” said Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Atiqul Islam.

He said this while addressing as the chief guest a training programme on ‘Transportation Plan and Management’ for the Urban Development Journalists Forum, Bangladesh (UDJFB), organised by Press Institute Bangladesh (PIB) on Tuesday. 

The Mayor said, “All the traffic coming from Uttara, Gazipur and Mymensingh gets stuck in Banani and Mohakhali as the roads have become narrow due to the building. As a result, people suffer from serious traffic jams. When ‘Purbachal new town’ is ready, 10 lakh people will live there. They will also have to move through this road.”

“We have to create a Transport Oriented Development (TOD) Plan. We are working on roads, footpaths, zebra-crossing, U-loops, crossroads and others tools related to traffic movement. We will create and implement an integrated plan to reduce traffic congestion, he continued.

Mayor Atiqul also said, “I have asked the Road Transport and Bridges Minister, Obaidul Quader to remove the building. I presented my view to him. Earlier, BGMEA Bhaban was a burden. Now, this building is a burden. You [journalists] have to proclaim the truth and create public awareness in this regard.” 

 He further said, “We have a plan to create a water way from Hatirjheel to Kalachadpur. In this regard, we have to build nine bridges over different canals. The project has already been placed to the LGRD Ministry.”

Md. Abdus Sabur, President of Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB), said, “The Capital ‘Dhaka’ was named after the Dhakeshwari Mandir. People started to live in Dhaka from the 7th century. After the independence of the country in 1971, Bangabandhu took all the initiatives to develop the city.”

He also said, “At least 25 percent of roads are needed for a modern town. But, Dhaka has only eight percent, of which, several areas have been occupied by grabbers. To develop the city, our journalists are also playing an important role. I hope, this training helps them a lot.”

PIB Director General, Zafar Wazed said, “Journalists, who work on various sectors including city and transportation need to develop themselves through different training programmes. We have to modernise the training programme. IEB will continue a different training programme for the betterment of the journalists.” 

Among others, UDJFB President Motin Abdullah, and Secretary Shohel Mamun, also spoke.

Transport expert Dr SM Salahuddin Ahamed, Buet professor Dr Shamsul Haque, DAP project Director Ashraful Islam, DTCA Engineer Anisur Rahman, Buet Engineer Dr Asif Raihan, DSCC Councilor Dr Omor Bin Abud Aziz, and Daily Ittefaq Editor Tasmima Hossen were the resource persons at the 3-day training programme.