Multidisciplinary body must for Ctg city dev projects
Roundtable told
Participants at a roundtable titled "Risk factor and Preventive measures: Dialogue on Chittagong City Development" jointly organised by The Daily Star and Rotary Club of Chittagong Mid City in the conference room of The Daily Star Chittagong office yesterday. Photo: STAR
A multidisciplinary supervisory body, comprising public service providers, engineers, architects and planners, must be formed to monitor Chittagong city's development projects and detect and avoid indiscipline and accident risks, said speakers yesterday. They were addressing a round-table, “Risk Factor and Preventive Measures: Dialogue on Chittagong City Developmentâ€, jointly organised by The Daily Star and Rotary Club of Chittagong Mid City in The Daily Star's Chittagong office. Addressing the roundtable, Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) panel mayor Chowdhury Hasan Mahmud Hasni said ensuring coordinated development projects require a “city governmentâ€, the multidisciplinary body. Unilaterally carrying out development works is impossible and causes disasters like the Bahaddarhat flyover collapse, he said. At least four people died and 15 were injured when concrete girders of the under-construction flyover at Bahaddarhat collapsed on a kitchen market on November 24. Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) was supervising the project. CDA Board Member Younus Gani Chowdhury said all five in the board, including the CDA chairman, were selected on political consideration and had no technical knowledge. “I have doubts whether CDA carried out a proper feasibility study on the flyover,†said Ali Asraf, former chairman of Institute of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB), Chittagong centre. City planner engineer Subash Chandra Barua questioned the necessity of the flyover's construction, stating that of the vehicles that pass Bahaddarhat intersection every 12 hours, 57.41 percent is rickshaws, which cannot use flyovers. Architect Sajal Chowdhury, a teacher at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, emphasised the necessity to save Chittagong's “cultural properties like hills, river and sea†while continuing development projects. Bangladesh Economic Association Vice President Khorshedul Alam Quadery said the authorities concerned should undertake a five-to-seven-year plan to gradually reduce the number of rickshaws in the city. The club member Zabina Zibran Chowdhury said the city should have separate zones for schools, hospitals, residences and factories. The Daily Star, Chittagong Bureau Chief AKM Raisul Huq Bahar moderated the discussion where IEB, Chittagong centre Chairman Md Harun and historian Dr Shamsul Hossain also spoke.
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