Special Correspondent :
Controversy shrouds the Development Project Proposal (DPP) of the multi-storied apartment project at Korail of Mohakhali in Dhaka, as its preparation ignored proper procedure, legal matters and environmental impact assessment.
“Even no feasibility study was conducted for the project although it is a prerequisite to take up any development project of the government,” according to the observations of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, which initiated the project. The Public Works Department (PWD) as the executing agency has been prepared the DPP of the proposed project to be implemented on 43 acres government land at Korail-Lalasari and Mohakhali under partnership basis.
Around 40,700 people live in Korail, the biggest slum in Dhaka. A report from Economic Empowerment of the Poorest (EEP) published in 2012 showed that the sprawling shanties housed more than 20,000 families.
A Dhaka court issued ‘status quo’ not to evict the slum dwellers after filing of two writs by the rights bodies namely Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)
“The DPP has been prepared completely ignoring resettlement of the slum dwellers as well as the court’s injunction,” an anonymous source in the Ministry of Housing and Public Works told The New Nation yesterday.
He said PWD couldn’t go ahead with the project without final verdict of the court’s ruling regarding the ‘status quo’ on the eviction of the slum dwellers.
“PWD has been asked to take opinion of the Attorney General whether the development work of the project would be launched or not due to the court’s injunction,” he added. Court decision is a must prior to implementing the project or floating tender.
According to decision taken by the inteministrail steering committee the architectural design of the proposed project has not been updated. Besides, the work of traffic and environmental impact assessment has not been done.
“The project has been prepared without detail feasibility study; complete layout plan and final structural design of the apartment buildings and in this case actual construction cost of the buildings could not be assertion,” observed the ministry concerned.
On the other hand, price of the land was estimated according to then market price as per the original DPP prepared in 2014.
In the DPP, per khata land has been estimated for Tk 2.25 crore in the case of high land and Tk 1.75 crore per katha in the case of lake based on the current market rate supplied by PDB’s field offices.
But current market price of the land in Mohakhali is much higher than the price mentioned in the DPP.
“But the land price has not been updated the land although four years have elapsed since the inception of original DPP. As a result, it is hard to assess tender value, to get private investors under the project in question,” observed the ministry.
Though the DPP project was not approved, in order to have a private partner, tender was invited on May 19 in 2015. But to invite tender was simply a deviation of the related rules and regulations and policy before approval of the DPP.
Three years elapsed from the date of inviting tenders. By this time, rate schedule of the PWD and valuation of the land have been changed. So, it is necessary to update the DPP and rate schedules in PWD’s tender document. Further, there is no opportunity to entertain the tenders invited three years ago.
DPP has proposed to rehabilitate 300 slum dwellers only out of 50,000.
According to a meeting held on 19 August this year, based on other decisions, construction cost along with price of the land has been changed. So, before final approval of the project, it is necessary to hold an inter-ministerial steering committee meeting again. As per construction of the infrastructure on the government land through partnership basis requires recommendation of the inter-ministerial steering committee, which has not yet been done, said the ministry recommendation.
The PWD will execute the project along with a private partner titled, “Construction of multistoried apartment buildings having 4662 nos residential flats with other facility & ancillary facilities at Lalsharai (Mohakhali) in Dhaka at an estimated cost of Tk 1104.59 crore (including the value of land.)
A private partner will be selected through competitive bidding, officials said. Md Rafiqul Islam, chief engineer of PWD could not be reached for comments.
