RAJUK: Development of Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara lakes

Engr. Md. Aminur Rahman
Project Director, Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara Lakes Project, RAJUK

RAJUK, the then DIT in 1961 took up “Gulshan Model Town Project” and at the same time, it took up 1000 acres of land development (Banani-Baridhara) project for residential purpose. In 1992, Gulshan Model Town Project was completed and partial development of Banani and Baridhara residential areas was achieved as a part of “1000 Acres Land Development Project” Between the two aforementioned project areas two lakes are located, one in between “Banani Model Town” and “Gulshan Model Town” and another in between “Gulshan Model Town” and Baridhara Model Town.” The combined area of the two lakes is 200 Acres. The water retention capacity of the lake has been reduced due to accumulation of wastes for long time. During the internal flood of last year some one or two bridges have been seen to be submerged underwater.

Urbanization scenario has changed the surroundings. Single family plots of the surroundings are a mostly, being converted to minimum 20 family apartment blocks. This transformation has produced very lesser recharge area, very high surface run off and 20 times larger waste water (which has to retain by the lakes).

In this context, reforming and preserving lake is inevitable to restore their water retention capacity for the purpose of keeping recharging area and to minimize the temporary water logging problems caused by surface run-off. Government of Bangladesh is very much conscious about the preservation and development of the environment of the city as a whole. The cost for the proposed project has been estimated by following the PWD schedule-2006 and in few items analytical rates have been adopted. But the cost of the item of cause way and driveway has been estimated according to PWD Schedule 2008. The cost for the development of the lakes stands at 41850.76 lac. It was mentioned in the PEC meeting held on 14.07.2007 in MOHPW that both the lakes include some personal and institutional land. It was decided to acquire the lands for the project. So there has been kept a provision of land acquisition. Acquisition cost for Gulshan-Banani is Tk. 28145.50lacs& Tk. 3317.58lacs for Gulshan-Baridharalake.

Minister for Housing & Public Works Engr. Mosharraf Hossain, MP and Chairman of RAJUK Md. Abdur Rahman are inspecting project site.

The project has been proposed to be implemented by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) under Ministry of Housing & Public Works aid. One project director at the rank of Superintending Engineer will be engaged for full time during implementation. The project will be managed by Rajuk’s own man power. The overhead cost has been discarded by following the decision of a meeting of Planning Commission held on 27/12/2003. The contingency cost has been revised logically. Very recently a verdict has been given by a bench headed by the then honorable chief justice of Supreme Court of Bangladesh to RAJUK to acquire the peripherial land of lakes for public interest as early as possible and the same should be maintained for preserving lake by road and walkways. Appellate division also directed RAJUK for earliest implementation of its order (Copy of the division has been annexed in the last page of this DPP).

RAJUK mainly implements land development projects and recovers project cost by selling plots & flats. RAJUK usually constructs associated infrastructures. No financial recovery would be possible from this Project. RAJUK’s financial condition would not allow to bear 50% of the project cost. But due to environmental and water retention causes of the whole encircling area, this project must be implemented. Under these circumstances, this issue was discussed in the ADP review meetings of April, 2009 of Ministry of Housing and Public Works. It was decided to recast the DPP by reducing RAJUK’s investment from 50% to 20% and increasing GOB fund from 50% to 80%. As per that decision DPP of the project was revised.After that PSC committee decided to keep the land acquisition cost for GOB and the rest of the project for RAJUK. As per that decision DPP of the project has been further revised.

As the project will be implemented by the human resources of RAJUK it-self, the project manpower and cost thereof has not been included in the project cost. To reduce the cost for Equipment & vehicle, the cost for 1 (One) Jeep, 1 (One) Computer have been included in the project.

In this way, the entire estimated cost of the Development of Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara Lake standsat Tk. 41025.52of which Tk. 31463.08 lac will be financed by GOB fund and Tk9562.44 will be sponsored by Rajuk’s own fund.

RAJUK got approval from ECNEC in 2010 for the project titled as ‘Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara Lake Development Project’. The original approved completion time of the project was July’2010 to June’2013. The completion time has been extended to June’2019, without increasing cost.

A partial view of present lake

However, due to many unavoidable reasons RAJUK stopped theland acquisition process. Moreover, no master-plan of the project was available to RAJUKduring preparation of initial DPP. In the meantime, RAJUK engaged a consulting firm forpreparation of a master-plan of the overall development of the Gulshan-Banani-Baridharalake. On the basis of this master-plan, many new features have been added to theaforementioned project. Consequently, the quantity and cost of the features described in theoriginal DPP have been changed due to detail design, cost estimation, rate rescheduling etc.Eventually, RAJUK prepared a RDPP on the basis of the approved master plan and updatedschedule of rates. In addition, new items like bridges, overpass, protection work etc. havebeen incorporated by engineers of RAJUK in order to achieve maximum benefit in the form ofincrease in connectivity between Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara areas, reduction of trafficcongestion, etc. Also, quantity of lake excavation has been increased remarkably based on thesurvey conducted by consultant. In order to achieve social objectives, park development, sports and recreational facility and socio-public facility have beenincorporated by RAJUK which were not in the initial DPP. Moreover, implementation of thisproject is a necessity because Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara Lake Area has been declared a Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) by the Government.

Accordingly, as per the directives of Planning Evaluation Committee, RAJUK appointed Department of Civil Engineering, BUET as a consultant to the lake development project. As a consultant to the project, BUET was assigned to evaluate the technical feasibility of the project, to come up with alternatives to non-feasible proposals and provide with estimation and economic analysis of revised master plan. In order to serve these purposes, the BUET consultant team has conducted an array of survey which includes preliminary field visits, traffic survey, geotechnical investigation and water quality assessment. Based on these survey data and analyzed results, BUET has come up with some alternatives to the existing master plan by RAJUK.Cost estimation of different development works has been done on the basis of approved master plan, BUET study report and updated schedule of rates.

According to BUET study report to achieve maximum benefit new items which are essential like roads on pier, widening of existing roads, bridge, grade separator, roundabout, protection work etc has been incorporated. Quantity of lake excavation has been increased remarkably and calculation based on a survey conducted by consultant. To improve water quality new item like RCC pipe network is added. An item of rehabilitation work is proposed for the rehabilitation of project affected persons (PAP) of Karail Slum which was not in approved DPP.

Now the RDPP of Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara lake development project has been reconstructed according to BUET study report and the RDPP has been send to planning commission for approval.

Present activities done according to approved DPP are 2.40 km lake drive road from Badda (Hatirjheel) to Shajadpur; lake excavation and sludge removal from Banani grave yard to Niketon Bridge. Till now the progress of the project is 27487.00 lac taka.