Staff Reporter :
Roads and Highways Department has decided to widen the Jessore-Benapole highway without cutting heritage trees.
It came up with the decision amid protest from green activists and locals.
Officials of the department said they would require additional Tk10,000 crore to implement the road-widening project without feeling of trees. The money would be spent to acquire lands for the project.
Mashedi Hasan, Assistant Engineer of Jessore Road and Highway said the road would be widened without felling of the heritage trees. “We have taken the decision to honour people’s concern.
A high-level expert team will visit Jessore Road soon to formulate a fresh plan to widen the road.”
To widen a 38-kilometre segment of the highway, the authorities earlier took the decision of chopping down 2,700 trees many of which stand majestically on both sides of the road throughout well over a century.
Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in its meeting on March 21 in 2017 discussed the necessity of cutting down trees on both sides of the highway as stipulated in a project.
The meeting then approved the project at a cost of Tk 323 crore.
On January 6, the Jessore District administration in a meeting decided to cut 2,312 trees in presence of senior officials of the Roads and Highways Department along with three Members of Parliament, District Council Chairman, Deputy Commissioner.
Since then protests have been brewing all over social media and green activities took to the streets all over the country to protest against the government ‘shocking’ decision.
Later, the High Court halted the decision for six months issuing a rule asking the government to explain as why the decision to chop down the trees should not be declared illegal.
