Ctg City Corporation wants Tk100 crore for canal maintenance

The Chattogram City Corporation has sought Tk100 crore from the Chattogram waterlogging mitigation project implemented by the Chattogram Development Authority for the maintenance of  canals if that responsibility is handed over to the corporation.

"A lot of money is needed to clean canals. The city corporation has funds for cleaning roads but not for cleaning canals and drains," Chattogram City Corporation Mayor Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said at a CCC-CDA coordination meeting on Wednesday in the conference room of the corporation. 

The Mayor said it would not be right to give the responsibility of the canals to the city corporation. The CCC is ready to take responsibility only after allocation of funds from the project or from the ministry, he added.    

Although the 36 canals are under the jurisdiction of the city corporation, the Chattogram waterlogging mitigation project worth Tk5616 crore, was approved at the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council in August 2017 to be implemented by the CDA. 

The Bangladesh Army's 34 Engineering Construction Brigade was assigned for implementing the CDA project. 

The work started in April 2018 and was supposed to be finished by June 2020. 

But the CDA authorities extended both the duration and cost of the project in March this year. The cost has been increased to Tk9526 crore and the time has been extended until December 2023.

It was revealed in the meeting that regulators were installed in five of the canals under the project which will start operating from June this year, but no authority has taken the operational responsibility yet. 

The CCC Mayor wants to give the maintenance responsibility of these regulators to the water development board for the first year.

Project Director of the Bangladesh Army's 34 Engineering Construction Brigade, Mohammed Shah Ali, told the meeting that 22 points have been identified for solving the waterlogging problem in the city whereby rain water will be drained out to the rivers through these points.  

He also said that the work on seven canals has been completed while the work on another 11 will be finished by June. 

"We are facing problems in completing work on the rest of the canals due to complications in land acquisition," he said.

CDA Chairman Zahirul Alam Dovash said the development project is a continuous process. If the waterlogging cannot be mitigated completely this year it will be solved by next year, he added.

"It is not enough to dredge canals alone to mitigate waterlogging. The Karnaphuli River also needs to be dredged, otherwise the mitigation project will hardly show any benefit," said Zahirul Alam.