Land for Padma bridge

The government has acquired 2,452 acres of land in three districts -- Shariatpur, Madaripur, Munshiganj -- for constructing the Padma bridge which is Bangladesh biggest ever infrastructure project.

The land-loosers will be adequately compensated and nearly Tk 10 billion has been earmarked for the purpose, Land Minister Rezaul Karim Hira told Parliament on Monday.

 

"We have already paid compensation to 12,532 land owners for acquisition. All whose lands have been taken over will be compensated."

The $2.9 billion Padma project was a pre-poll commitment of the Awami League-led ruling coalition.

The World Bank had pledged $1.2 billion with the ADB and the JICA promising another $1 billion between themselves.

But the global lender stopped funding raising graft allegations and agreed to resume on condition the government would cooperate with its investigation.

In January this year, the Bangladesh government withdrew the funding request and decided to do the bridge with its own resources.

A Tk 68.5 billion allocation for the bridge has been earmakred in the 2013-14 budget.

Communications Minister Obaidul Quader said a Tk 91 billion tender will be floated on June 30 for construction of the main structure of the bridge.

In response to a question of BNP MP Rehana Akhter Ranu, the Land Minister said that 62, 201 of the country's 127,047 landless families were given khas land (state-owned land) after his government came to power in January 2009.

To a question from Awami League MP Abdur Rahman Badir, the minister said that 1.1 million acres of khas land in the country – was under agriculture, and 636,225 acres of khas land was used for other purposes.

After implementation of Vested Property Return Act, 167,318 cases have been filed in concerned tribunals and 7,622 of them have already been disposed of, he said in response to another question.