Staff Reporter:
Land Adviser Ali Imam Majumdar yesterday cautioned officials concerned to be careful so the land owners were not affected or exposed to any hassling during any land acquisition process.
“The government acquires land in public interests and development works . . . (but) the land own-ers must not face any trouble or be affected in the acquisition process,” a land ministry statement quoted him as saying at a meeting.
Majumdar, a bureaucrat by background who also served as the cabinet secretary, added that the officials should be careful so that nobody was deprived of justice.
The meeting of the 145th Central Land Allocation Committee reviewed the city’s commuting sys-tem while a process was underway for land acquisition for the extended metro rail service.
The adviser termed the metro rail as a “savior” of Dhaka city adding its expanded network would reduce the city’s notorious traffic congestion further.
According to the statement the meeting discussed land acquisition proposals for six projects of which 27.8097 acres of land would be acquired from eight mouzas for widening three roads under the “Important Road Development Project” at Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital.
It said 0.98961 acres of land would be acquired for expanding a road from Madani Avenue to Balu River and from that point to the Shitalakshya River under a Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakha (RAJUK) project while authorities previously acquired 34.85 acres of land for the purpose.
Under a government decision 2.4462 acres of land would be acquired for ‘Construction of Entry-Exit, Fair Exit, Ventilation Duct at Aftabnagar and Badda Underground Metrorail Stations and Connection Corridor with Line-5: Southern Route under the Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Develop-ment Project”.
Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited implements the MRT Line-5 project.
Another acquisition process is to be launched for construction of roads and link roads in Satkhira and Khulna City Corporation area.
The statement said he meeting also decided to acquire 14.491 acres of land under ‘Accelerating and strengthening skill for economic transformation (ASSET) project of the Technical Education direc-torate in Gazipur to establish a world-class polytechnic institute.
Senior Secretary of Land ministry ASM Saleh Ahmed, Agriculture Secretary Dr Muhammad Emdad Ullah Mian, Secretary of Technical and Madrasa Education Division Dr Khondker M Kab-irul Islam, RAJUK Chairman Major General (Retd) Md Siddiqur Rahman, Dhaka’s divisional commissioner, additional secretaries of land ministry and project directors were present at the meeting.
Deputy Commissioners of Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Satkhira were connected online.
