Project to ease water-logging in Ctg to begin this month

CHITTAGONG, Jan 1: The expenditure of the project styled, 'Canal re-excavation, extension, renovation and development to solve water logging in Chittagong city' has increased to Tk 7,000 crore from its earlier estimation of Tk 5,616.50 crore.
Besides, a total of 57 canals instead of 36 have been brought under the project. Moreover, a five-member technical committee recommended handing over the execution work to the Engineering Corps of the Bangladesh Army.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken a revolutionary step to free the port city from the curse of water-logging by approving the project at the ECNEC meeting on August 9 last year.
Following the ECNEC approval, the LGRD Ministry had constituted a five- member technical committee to review the project.
The technical committee is headed by Maj Gen Siddikur Rahman, Engineer-in-Chief of Bangladesh Army and the other members are Ahmed Moinuddin Executive Engineer of CDA, Chief Engineer of WDB, Chittagong, representatives from Chittagong City Corporation and Chittagong WASA.
The committee was directed to submit a review report by one month.  According to sources, the technical committee has already finalised their review and submitted it to the LGRD Ministry.
The LGRD Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain is the chief of the project execution committee. The main body of the project headed by the LGRD Minister is expected to approve it this week.
The authority concerned is trying to begin the project within this month.
The projects include canal re-excavation, extension, renovation and development to solve water logging in Chittagong city. The implementation of the project would help remove rainwater quickly from the city.
Under the project, a total of 36 canals in and outside the port city will be re-excavated, construction of 10.77 kilometers of side-drains, 1,76,000 meters retaining wall and 86 kilometers of road. Besides, there is also plan to build 48 PC bridges and six culverts.  The Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works will implement the project from January 2018 to June 2020.
The 57 canals in Chittagong city carry waste and rainwater of a city of 8 million people but these canals fail to remove waste and rainwater because of illegal occupation and clogging.  It is urgent to remove water logging from the port city because the Chittagong port handles a large portion of the country's export-import.