Kapasgola road dev work gets going
Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) continues expansion and development works of a road from Chittagong College to Kapasgola. The photo was taken recently.Photo: STAR
Development works of Chittagong College to Kapasgola road is going on in full swing with a hope to complete it within June, 2012. Chittagong Development Authority (CDA), the implementing agency of the work, said one third work of a Tk 91 crore project, including Kapasgola area, has already been finished without any progress in the Chittagong College area due to shortage of land. Having the land from Kajem Ali High School and Haji Mohammad Mohsin College, CDA officials said they started the construction work in the Chittagong college portion. Of the total budget, Tk 75 crore is fixed for land acquisition and compensation. Rest of the money will be used for road construction, they said, adding that after widening, the 2.19 kilometer long road will be 60 feet in width. CDA will build two sidewalks which are five feet in width on both sides of the road, they said. The officials said it is very difficult to acquire lands of the roadside educational institutions, but the CDA achieved the task. They could convince the institutions to hand over the lands for the road. While visiting the project area on December 7, this correspondent found that work to widen the road was going on as Kajem Ali High School and Haji Mohammad Mohsin College handed over a huge amount of land for the road. CDA officials expressed hope that they would also be successful in acquiring lands of other owners shortly including that from Chittagong College. Habibur Rahman, project director (PD) and executive engineer of CDA, said it is one of the busiest roads in the port city. When the classes of the schools and colleges end, it becomes tough to cross the College Road Area for the pedestrians as well as the students. The CDA is implementing the project on priority basis keeping all this in mind, Habibur said. He said the CDA got the one kilometer Kapasgola road from Roads and Highway Department (RHD) which is being widened. He said without cooperation of the educational institutions, it would be very difficult to run the project. The PD hoped that after completion of the work, traffic jam would reduce in Jamal Khan, Chawkbazar, Muradpur, West Bakalia, Kapasgola Sholokbahar and Bahadderhat areas. CDA Chairman Abdus Salam said people of that area were very cooperative in the development process. He said the CDA would also widen the other city roads in phases. Engineer Ali Ashraf, former president of Institute of Engineers of Bangladesh, Chittagong and a city planner, said, “The port city needs extensive roads but it only has one wide road which is from Bahadderhat to Patenga beach. Traffic jam always prevails on Bahadderhat-Patenga road as there is no wide road in the city”.
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