Rajuk Purbachal project now seems an opportunity of wasting money

RAJDHANI Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) took up the Purbachal New City project back in 1995, involving areas of Rupganj in Narayanganj and parts of Kaliganj in Gazipur. Twenty-five years later, only 67% of the project’s land development has been completed. After five design changes and six deadline extensions, RAJUK now promises to complete the project – initially planned to be complete in 2010 – in June next year.
But, this target also looks elusive as 11,000 of the project’s 26,000 plots are yet to be prepared. The 15,000 plots that RAJUK has handed over to buyers thus far are not complete either. There are no roads. It is also uncertain when electricity, gas and water connections will be available. What is more, many of the plots handed over are still full of ruts.
RAJUK’s involvement in Prubachal is a prime example of colossal mismanagement in developing land — it dwarfs private sector involvement because the administration is so much bigger and more powerful. Critics like Architect Iqbal Habib say that corruption and irregularities exist in the project — and there is good reason for doing so.
According to RAJUK itself and the Supreme Court sources, a retired joint secretary filed a writ petition with the High Court against the unlawful allotment of 10 kathas of land for each of seven members of the family of Partex Group Chairman MA Hashem. The first 44 allottees filed a writ petition against the allotment of 500 plots – that had been allotted earlier – to two new people. Eight more people filed writ petitions over irregularities in allotment of plots. None of the writs has been disposed of yet.
So far, not even one-third of the project’s land development has been done. So it seems quite likely that once again there will be an extension — if only 33 percent progress has been made in 25 years, can we reasonably expect 100 per cent progress in just seven months ? It’s absurd.
The project is also not environmentally sound. A Singaporean company found out that due to the soil strata it was not possible to have high rise plots beyond 50 storied — then on what basis did RAJUK approve the building of 96 and 71 storied high rise buildings along with at least 39 other skyscrapers? Can the relatively small area of Purbachal sustain them due to their large ecological footprint — that too seems unlikely.
RAJUK also tried to get forest areas without thinking of ecological balance. More than 60% of the 1,500 acres of land acquired in Parabarta and Barakau mouzas have not been possessed by RAJUK yet because of strong resistance from the locals as they are private forests. Meanwhile they managed to cut down almost 15,000 trees — surely an ecological crime considering how little forest area we have as a percentage of our land area. A part of it is marked as a flood-flow zone of the capital. There are several canals and reservoirs. Implementing the project by destroying these is illegal.