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Eastern bypass sees no progress in 14yrs

Estimated cost rises five times

Morshed Ali Khan
Implementation of the Dhaka Integrated Flood Control Embankment or the Eastern Bypass Project seems a far cry although the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has recently formed a working committee to review the project taken up 14 years ago.
According to sources in Water Development Board (WDB), which initiated the project, its estimated cost has risen from Tk 2,000 crore in 1998 to around Tk 10,910 crore now.
The project, okayed by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council in 1998, envisages building a 24-kilometre-long dyke-cum-bypass along the Turag and Balu rivers on the eastern fringe of the capital. The bypass will encompassl24 square km of fast growing urban and semi-urban areas between Tongi railway bridge and Kanchpur bridge.
Official sources said failing to find a financier for the project, the PMO on July 7 formed a working committee comprising
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experts from different ministries to review the project and submit a report by September 30.
“We might require 15 more days to submit the report,” said Rowshan Ali Khan, superintendent engineer of the project. He mentioned that only 70 hectares of land out of 1,556 hectares required for trhe project has so far been acquired by the government.
"We are not sure how soon we may start the timeconsuming land acquisition process," Rowshan said. “ Prices of land have risen phenomenally and nobody wants to part with a piece of land without a long-lasting legal battle," he said, hinting at the uncertainty about implementation of the project.
In 1992, a UK consultant prepared the feasibility report on Eastern Bypass for a fee of Tk 2.25 crore. Although originally a four-lane road was planned, the PMO has asked the working committee to make provisions for a six-lane bypass considering the future traffic situation in the capital.
Casting doubt about implementation of the project, a WDB official said, "Tenure of this government (a little over one year left) is also a factor regarding its implementation ... If we start acquiring land today, it will take more than a year to complete the process.”
In 2004, Tk 87 lakh was totally wasted when the army engineers tried to dredge the Turag and build an embankment for the
same project, he said. “The army engineers abandoned the work when they found that soil in die Turag river bed was nothing but sludge, unsuitable for the base of a highway."
The official noted that without the Eastern Bypass, a vast area on the capital's eastern fringe remains unprotected from recurring flooding. Moreover, the city's traffic situation in the near future might take a turn for the worse.
“Considering rapid growth of the city's fringe areas, the bypass project will soon become an indispensable one. And further delay in its implementation means costs rising to an impossible level,” said the official, requesting not to be named.