Under the Chittagong City Outer Ring Road project, a technical committee has been formed to resolve the complications created in the construction of Feeder Road-2.
The members of the committee comprising representatives of six organizations will work on three proposals. The technical committee formed at the coordination meeting held at the Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) conference room on Wednesday has been asked to submit a report within the next month.
The Outer Ring Road project to connect the embankment with the city includes the construction of three feeder roads. Among them, Feeder Road-2 is up to Barapol-Anandabazar-Beribandh. In a couple of months, the CDA will prepare a development proposal (DPP) for the Outer Ring Road Project-2 and send it to the ministry. There will be a feeder road.
However, WASA has been opposing the construction of Feeder Road-2 from the very beginning. The agency claims that WASA acquired 169,955 acres of land in 1963 in central Halishahar to implement the sewerage project. The part of the feeder road from Chauchala to the embankment falls on the land acquired by WASA.
According to the RS survey, there is no road in this land. There are roads for people to walk in the BS survey. It ends, however, within about 300 feet of the boundary line on the western edge of the acquired land. The layout of the sewerage project has already been made on the acquired land and no road has been laid in the middle of the land horizontally.
The CDA sources claim, however, that the master plan mentions the construction of a 100 foot wide road. This will be Feeder Road-2. Moreover, if this is not done, the city dwellers will not get the benefits of Outer Ring Road. However, the locals are in favor of the Feeder Road project.
Since then, the technical committee has claimed that WASA has not taken any clearance or NOC from the CDA for their sewerage project, claiming that the land has already been acquired.
However, according to the law, there is an obligation to get a clearance. WASA recently came under pressure from donor agencies and applied for a clearance a few days ago due to the conditions of the Department of Environment. This time CDA objected because of Feeder Road. However, WASA is also reluctant to give concessions. Letters have been exchanged between the two organizations more than once to resolve the issue. But the solution was not. The last coordination meeting was held Wednesday in the presence of the heads of Chittagong City Corporation, CDA, WASA, CMP and the port.
City Mayor Rezaul Karim Chowdhury formed a high-powered technical committee comprising six organizations at the meeting. CDA Chief Engineer Kazi Hasan bin Shams will be the coordinator of the technical committee. He will also be the Additional Chief Engineer of City Corporation and Chief Engineer of Chittagong Port and Railway East, Director Traffic of CMP’s DC Traffic and CDA Hour Ring Road Project and WASA Sewerage Project.
CDA Chairman Zahirul Alam Dobhas presided over the function. CDA and WASA chief engineers including Chittagong Port Authority Chairman Rear Admiral M Shahjahan, WASA Managing Director AKM Fazlullah, CMP Additional Additional Commissioner Shyamal Kumar Nath were present at the meeting. At the meeting, the city mayor emphasized the benefits of the Outer Ring Road and the construction of Feeder Road in the public interest.
CDA Chairman ZahirulAlamDhobas said the road from Agrabad-Barapol to Patenga and the airport is very important for easy access. The road from Chauchala to the embankment is being maintained at 100 feet as per the master plan. This is the only place to go through the embankment.
Things the committee will work on: Three alternative proposals for the construction of Feeder Road-2 came up in yesterday's meeting. The members of the technical committee will look into the matter. The proposals are to fly over or over the sewerage project or to connect the feeder road to the embankment on the left side of the sewerage project. It is also proposed to move the garbage disposal of the city corporation to the north and explain the existing place to WASA.
The matter has been confirmed by WASA Chief Engineer Maksud Alam. He said the committee would look into the proposals that came up in the meeting.
He said WASA would implement two more projects on the land in the future. If three projects are implemented, there will be congestion. So we have suggested that going north will not be a problem. There have also been proposals from the CDA. All will be considered and reported within a month.
CDA chief engineer Kazi Hassan bin Shams said the feeder should be road-2. But WASA was not allowing it in any way. This is the primary road.
He added that according to the law, all the companies in Chittagong have to take NOC from CDA to implement the project. But WASA did not take it on the sewerage project. In this case, their statement was that they had acquired the place long ago. In the case of financial assistance for the latest WASA project, the donor organization has made it a condition to get clearance from the environment. Again, there are conditions of entry; you have to take NOC from CDA. As a result, WASA came to us.
He said, JICA study found that 75,000 vehicles ply daily on the existing road to the airport in 2008. If the alternative road is the Outer Ring Road, 45 percent of the vehicles are moving in that direction. Now it has become 2.5 lakh. The tunnel, Mirsarai Economic Zone and Bay Terminal were not there when the study was done. If they are added, it will reach 50 lakhs in the future. We do not have enough infrastructures to move these vehicles. From this context we are doing the ring road to Banshbaria. If you don't do feeder road now, you won't get any benefit.