Home ›› 03 Dec 2022 ›› Front
Rajuk has planned to recover Kalyanpur and Rayer Bazaar canals and build two waterways transforming them into tourist and recreational spots for city people.
For this reason Rajuk initially has taken up a Tk2, 700 crore project to implement through Detailed Area Plan (DAP 2022-2035).
According to DAP, the 4.71-km-long Rayer Bazaar Canal will have a 0.41 square km forestation while it will have a 10.29-km-long footpath, a 9.43-km-long asphalt cycle lane, six boat ghats and two amphitheatres.
While the 3.1-km-long proposed Kalyanpur Canal will have a 0.2 square kilometer forestation, a 7.4-km-long footpath, a 5.9-km-long asphalt cycle lane, seven boat ghats and two amphitheaters.
Some 40 types of shrubs and trees will be planted in the project areas.
Rayer Bazaar Canal has an estimated 64.878 acres of land. The area includes Barabardeshi, Katasur, Ramchandrapur, Sorai Jafrabad and Shree Khanda Mouza.
Kalyanpur Canal has an estimated 31.766 acres of land. The area includes Bara Sayek, Chota Sayek, Kafrul, Mohammadpur, Nandarbagh, Paikpara, Ramchandrapur, Senpara Parbata and UttarAdabor Mouza.
Major share of the budget will be spent on land acquisition. Land acquisition will cost over Tk2, 282 crore while acquisition of building will cost over Tk168 crore. The rest Tk260 crore will be spent on the development activities.
Rayer Bazaar Canal will cost over TK1, 282 crore and Kalyanpur Tk1, 428 crore.
While incorporating the project DAP mentioned that the two canals are situated in a very significant areas of the capital.
Their locations forced the authorities to emphasize reciprocal relationship between human being and nature during formulating the architectural design of the project.
The plans were taken so that the city people could live with their neighbors in harmony. The motto of the project is ‘human being is a part of the nature’, it added. The project keeps 25 criteria under its consideration to serve multiple purposes.
As per the plan, those two waterways will serve the purpose of tourist and recreational spots along with ensuring a mass communication system around the canals while at the same time they can be used as reservoirs so that no water-logging can happen in the city.
The spots will also maintain the biodiversity in the area as well.
Rayer Bazaar Canal will act as an estuary leading to Buriganga River as well as a big water reservoir of the city while the Kalyapur Canal will cross Mirpur Road to join the other side of the road next to ACME Building.
Rajuk Town Planner and also Project Director of DAP Ashraful Islam told the Business Post that when Dhaka was made capital of Bengal first it was situated mainly in old Dhaka.
The rest of the areas of today were mostly canals, low lying areas and forests.
Several experts said the capital city had as many as 27 to 21 canals. But the reality is there is no accurate information about how many canals were there in the capital area.
“Surprisingly we have identified some 219 small to large canals in the capital. We might not be able to recover them all but we can gradually recover those that have been put on record,” he said with determination.
This project will not only ensure a tourist spot in the city but also carry rain water of its surrounding areas to get rid of water-logging.
“Birds will come back and last of all our children can look up in the sky and city people can get another place like Hatirjheel,” the Rajuk official said.
President of Bangladesh institute of Planners Mohammad Fazle Reza praised the ambitious project and said if the government could bring the project into reality it would be strong initiative for the city to make it livable.
Environmentalist Syeda Rizwana Hasan, also the Chief Executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), asked Rajuk to publish details of the plan and said without observing and analysis it will not be wise to give any comment.
She, however, said if Rajuk wanted it could implement its plan. But it needs to be stricter and more functional.
