JMBA approves fund for Padma Bridge land

Dhaka: The board of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Authority has approved the disbursement of Tk 84 crore for land acquisition for the proposed Padma Bridge.

Officials said the board meeting, presided over by communications adviser MA Matin, on Tuesday approved the amount which will be provided by the JMBA from its own coffers.

‘The JMBA will finance the land acquisition project for Padma Bridge from its own funds,’ said Abdullahel Kafi, chief engineer of the JMBA, the implementing agency of the construction of the Padma Bridge on Wednesday.

He said that land acquisition for the 5.58 kilometre Padma Bridge would begin shortly as the list of lands to be acquired had already been handed over to the deputy commissioners of Munshiganj, Shariatpur and Madaripur districts.

The construction of the largest bridge in the country is expected to begin in 2010 at a cost of Tk 10,000 crore after the completion of land acquisition and preparation of a detailed design of the bridge.

Earlier, the JMBA sent a Tk 320 crore development project proposal to the Planning Commission, seeking money to acquire around 918 hectares of land at Mawa and Jajira, the proposed sites for Padma Bridge.

But the Planning Commission refused to approve the proposal and asked the JMBA to mobilise funds from its own resources for land acquisition.
Accordingly, the JMBA submitted a proposal to its board for approval of Tk 84 crore for the first phase of land acquisition, said officials.

Kafi said the rest of the amount required for land acquisition would also be provided by the JMBA’s own fund.

In the 2006-07 fiscal year, JMBA earned around Tk 180 crore, 70 per cent of which came from toll collection.

The government will soon promulgate the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Land Acquisition Ordinance 2007 to avoid ‘undue compensation claims’ during land acquisition.

The council of advisers in May approved the draft ordinance which is yet to be promulgated by President Iajuddin Ahmed.

Some people realised extra money as compensation by showing that they had lost their houses because of the construction of the bridge over Jamuna in the 1990s.

‘We had a very bad experience and had to pay extra money as compensation for land acquisition before the construction of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge, so the authorities this time have planned to enact a new law to prevent illegal claims by unscrupulous quarters,’ he said.