CDA to build road-cum-embankment, new township along Karnaphuli

The project has been taken as a part of its programme for speedy urbanisation of the port city in line with the concept of commercial capital.

The project aims at building an embankment on the river Karnaphuli to save the city from tidal surge and developing a new township with urban facilities on the right bank of the river. The road on the embankment will be used as outer ring road linking Chittagong port area to Cox's Bazar and southern part of Chittagong.

CDA has already started feasibility study of the project at an estimated cost of Tk 3.42crore. Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is providing financial assistance for the study to be completed in two years.

The feasibility study is to help formulate a project for construction of a road-cum embankment stretching from Sadarghat Road to Kalurghat Bridge and a new township on the river bank, CDA sources said.

The fund for implementation of the project will come partly from foreign aid and partly from the government and CDA itself, they said.

The area stretching from Sadarghat Road to Kalurghat Bridge along the Karnaphuli forms the part of Outer Link Road network identified by Chittagong Metropolitan Master Plan (CMMP), sources said. The master plan also gave guidelines for planned urbanisation of the area.

CDA took the initiative as per the guidelines of the master plan at the directive of former commerce minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, MP.

A representative from JBIC at a meeting with CDA officials in December in 2002 had shown interest in the project that prompted it to take initiative, sources said.

Despite being located very near to the heart of the city, the proposed project site remained underdeveloped due to insufficient infrastructure facilities. If linked with the proposed road, the new town will be a 10-minute distance from the city centre or the old town.

They said that housing complexes, educational institutions, hospitals and markets are included in the proposed new town while the road-cum embankment would be used as outer ring road. The road might also be a good link to the Asian Highway leading to Myanmar and Thailand. It would enable Asian countries to avail facilities of Chittagong port.

Besides, parks, motels and other tourist facilities would be developed at the new town and along the road-cum embankment to provide riverside recreation to the city dwellers, they said.