Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) has implemented drainage and approach road projects aimed at freeing the city from water-logging together with making the pedestrian movement easy.
Various works including construction of a two kilometre road, culverts and railings were completed with an estimated cost of around Taka 4.27 crore, reports BSS.
The infrastructure development works were implemented under a project titled "Drain Construction for Removing Water-logging in Rajshahi city (Third Phase)" in order to install a planned drainage system through removing its existing constraints.
Another eight-kilometre road has also been constructed besides 11 drainages under the project in order to make the pedestrian movement side by side with the process of removing garbage and waste from the drains easy and smooth.
City Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton said around seventy-five per cent of Rajshahi city areas are almost freed from water-logging after implementation of the drain construction project.
Salient feature of the project was to improve the physical infrastructural environment through building a time-fitting and sustainable water sewerage system that will contribute a lot towards attaining the cherished goal of boosting working capacity and economic condition of the city.
Chief Engineer Nur Islam told BSS that the project has been implemented as continuation of implementation of the previous first and second phases as per the recommendations of a 27-year drainage master plan.
Under the Taka 193.29-crore project, construction works of 93.40-km drains including 67.75-km tertiary and 19.29-km secondary ones are on the final stage with the main thrust of freeing the city's lion-portion areas from water-logging within near future.
Four railway culverts were expanded besides construction of 8.67-km approach roads in addition to the procurement of two long-boom excavators and two rubber trucks under the project.
Problems related to unfit and narrow sections of the present drains and its low-sewerage capacity were removed. All the culverts were also widened besides removing the silts from the base of the drains to enhance the sewerage capacity under this project.
Engineer Islam said the physical infrastructure development works were implemented in order to attain the goal of developing the overall environmental health system through building an effective and permanent water sewerage system in the city.
The project, as a whole, will contribute a lot towards freeing the city's 75 per cent areas from water-logging and more than 70 per cent of the population will be benefited either directly or indirectly from the improved physical infrastructures.
Earlier, 54 per cent city areas were freed from water-logging and 60 per cent of people benefited with implementation of the two previous phases of the drainage project.
Under the first phase, 32.87-km drains were constructed at a cost of around Taka 23.07 crore while other 16.53-km drains at a cost of around Taka 21.59 crore under the second phase belong to the drainage master plan by this year end.
"We have started formulating another long-term master plan to bring the untouched as well as gradually expanding areas under the drainage network in the years to come," added Nur Islam.
