The Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) has undertaken a Tk 12.30 billion project to develop the port city's road network, ease the traffic congestion, and facilitate an improved trade and business environment.
Under the project the CCC will construct a bus-cum-truck terminal in the city's Kulgaon area of the northeastern Chattogram.
This is the biggest ever road network project of the CCC in terms of cost and is scheduled to be completed by June 2020 with financial support of the government, the city corporation said in a statement.
Sources said the Tk 12.2997 billion project was approved in the ECNEC meeting (Executive Committee of the National Economic Council) on Thursday last, with no matching fund from the CCC, meaning the government will bear the entire cost of the project.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the 10th ECNEC meeting. Mayor of the CCC AJM Nasir Uddin, among others, was present in the meeting.
The CCC said everyday several thousand buses, minibuses, trucks, three-wheeler auto-rickshaws and other mechanised vehicles enter the city through the Oxygen Intersection from Rangamati and Khagrachhari hill districts and other northeastern upazilas of the district, causing severe traffic congestions in the port city.
If these vehicles are stopped at the city's Oxygen point and leave the same from the proposed terminal, the city will be free from traffic snarls.
The terminal will be constructed on 8.10 acres of land to be acquired at a cost of Tk 2.6 billion. Construction of the terminal structure will cost Tk 75 million while Tk 33.7 million will be spent for land development.
Under the project, 320.07 kilometres of the city roads under 41 wards will be upgraded at a cost of Tk 7.5513 billion while 37 bridges will be constructed at a cost of Tk 1.3916 billion and 215-metre approach roads and culverts will be constructed at a cost of Tk 164.9 million.
Chittagong City Mayor AJM Nassir Uddin said 20 per cent of the project cost was supposed to come from the CCC fund as the matching fund.
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