Four-lane roads from Dhaka to Jessore, Kuakata before Padma bridge, Minister Quader says

The four-lane upgradation of the roads from Dhaka to Jessore and Kuakata will be completed before the Padma Bridge is ready by 2018, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has said.

“Padma Bridge is our mega project. The four-lane upgradation of the Dhaka to Jessore and Dhaka to Kuakata roads will end before the construction of the bridge by 2018,” he told Parliament on Sunday.
 
He was replying to a question of MP Abul Hasnat Abdullah.
 
The minister also said that two Chinese firms proposed to upgrade the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway to a six-lane one while signing the deal to set up a tunnel under the Karnaphuli river in June.
 
He said the government would have to pay $10,000 a day as fines, if it failed to hand over the land for the second phase of the project to set up the Elevated Expressway from Shahjalal International Airport to Kutubkhali to its investor within a year from the start of the project.

Railways have 13,000 acres unused land

Railways Minister Mazibul Hoque told Parliament that the railways have around 13,000 acres of unused land and 4,500 illegally grabbed houses.

He said the illegal establishments on the unused lands would be evicted gradually.

A drive to evict the illegal grabbers from the houses had started, he said.

The lands that will not be needed for the development and expansion of the railways would be used to build five-star hotels, commercial buildings, motels, medical colleges, hospitals, and shopping malls under Public Private Partnership (PPP), the minister said.

A transaction adviser under the Prime Minister’s Office had already been appointed for the construction of a five-star hotel at Chittagong’s Zakir Hossain Road under PPP, he said.

The adviser had submitted its report on the assessment of the possibility of the project and the report was approved, he said.

“Besides this project, a deal to appoint a transaction adviser for the construction of shopping complexes-cum-guest houses at the railway station in Chittagong, Khulna and Comilla has been signed,” he added.

According to Hoque, the railways have a 40,264-strong approved manpower. The government spend Tk 5.24 billion in a year to pay the railways officials now, he said.

He said 106 kilometres of new rail tracks were set up after the Awami League had come to power in 2009.