Bridge over Gulshan-Banani Lake

Dhaka: The construction of a bridge over Gulshan-Banani Lake began after the LGRD and cooperatives adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, had laid the foundation stone on Monday.
The 90-metre long and 16-metre wide bridge, which will connect Road-11 of Banani and Road 41 of Gulshan, will be completed by one year.

The Local Government Engineering Department is implementing the government funded project.
Anwarul said the construction firm had been asked to complete the work by one year and they hoped to inaugurate the bridge on November 1, 2008.

‘We have also a plan to construct twp more similar bridges by demolishing an existing culvert and a bridge on the Kemal Ataturk Avenue and near the shooting club,’ he said.

Mentioning the government initiatives to reduce traffic congestion in the city, the adviser said the feasibility study of the Hatirjheel-Begunbari Khal Development Project was going on and the depth of the canal would be made 150-foot to use it as a retention area.

All the lanes and by-lanes in Begunbari-Hatirjheel Khal area will be connected with the planed
peripheral road around the canal and it will reduce significantly the traffic congestion in the areas, he said.

A four-lane overpass will also be constructed at the FDC level crossing to connect the Panthapath Road with the planned peripheral road, for which vehicles will be able to move without any signal at the Tong Diversion Road intersection and avoiding the nearby level crossing, he said.

A bridge near the BG press to Rampura will also be constructed and it will connect the Bijay Sarani and Rampura through the planned Bijay Sarani-Tejgaon road, he said.

Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed stressed the need for modernising the public transport system in the city and reducing the number of private transports, saying that it would be difficult to live in this city in future, otherwise.

He suggested that the government, like many other countries, should impose tax on the import of old cars instead of new cars to discourage the use of old cars.

Former adviser to the caretaker government and president of Banani Nagarik Kalyan Samiti ASM Shahjahan said the Gulshan-Banani bridge would reduce traffic congestion in the area alongside bringing economic benefit to residents in the areas.

The Local Government Division secretary, Sharfaraj Hossain, its joint secretary (development) Mijanur Rahman and the LGED chief engineer, Shahidur Rahman, among others, addressed the function.