The costliest 2.5 km road in the world
In the last 12 years, the RHD has completed only 800 metres of the road, the department now says it hopes to complete the road by 2020.
How long should a 2.5-kilometre road take to build? And how much time? You would be wrong in your every guess if you look at the road between two hospitals in Bogura.
In the past 12 years, only 800 metres of the road could be built and the project cost shot up to an astronomical Tk156 crore.
The question comes: Had it been really a necessity to build this road, then why is this strange delay and cost escalation and for whose fault?
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The original plan for the road looked okay when the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) took it up in 2004 at a cost of Tk13 crore and a deadline of three years.
In 12 years, however, the RHD has completed only 800 metres of the road linking Bogura Mohammad Ali Hospital and Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital.
The department now says it hopes to complete the road by 2020.
Sources at the RHD say the construction of the road was halted in 2006.
At a rally in the district in 2015, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed officials to complete the road as soon as possible. However, it seems that all her good words fell on deaf ears because the RHD has remained just as idle as it was before.
Officials say they faced difficulties in land acquisition and fund raising while building the 10m wide road.
“The project requires acquisition of 2.57 hectares of land, but so far we have managed to acquire only 1.64 hectares,” said RHD Executive Engineer Md Ashrafuzzaman.
“We recently received an allocation of Tk58 crore for land acquisition. Hopefully, the work will be completed by 2020,” he added.
Meantime, doctors of both the hospitals say patients are suffering because of the delay in the project.
Mohammad Ali Hospital is at a key point in Bogura town, so it sees a rush of patients round the clock.
“We often refer cardiac patients to Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital because it has comparatively modern facilities,” said resident medical officer Dr Shafiq Amin Kajal.
“However, a patient cannot be shifted there easily because of the traffic,” he added.
In the meantime, Assistant Director Dr Md Abdul Wadud of Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital said, “Since this medical college hospital is on the outskirts of the town, doctors often cannot get here quickly to attend emergency cases.”
