A project worth 125 crore taka just to please Hasina.
In 2014, the then President of Rajshahi Metropolitan Awami League Bazlur Rahman was contracted as the chairman of Rajshahi Development Authority-RDA. He then served in two consecutive terms from October 9 of that year to January 5, 2023. At that time, he took up the ‘Bangabandhu Square’ construction project at a cost of about 125 crore taka just to please Sheikh Hasina.
Out of this project, about 63 crore taka has been spent on constructing the building only. Then, RDA asked for the remaining amount in the second phase. But after the student-public uprising, the interim government cancelled the project. Due to this reason, the building constructed with a huge cost has now become a thorn in the nail for RDA. But the rare photo gallery of the July Mass Uprising is under consideration, besides renting it out as a commercial institution.
The RDA took up the Bangabandhu Square construction project at Talaimari intersection in Rajshahi city in 2017. In the first phase, land acquisition and development and infrastructure construction were estimated to cost 627.6 million taka. The main building’s construction work was awarded to a contractor, The Engineers and Architects Limited of Dhaka. Since then, the work has been in slow motion. In the meantime, the work further slowed down as the PD of the project RDA Assistant Engineer Md. Kamruzzaman went to prison in a corruption case. Later, Supervising Engineer Abdullah Al Tariq was appointed as the PD. The rest of the work was done under his supervision.
According to sources, the project received approval from ECNEC in 2018. The construction work on the infrastructure started in February 2020. Major changes were made in the design of the project by the consulting firm halfway into the work. The preliminary estimated cost of this project stood at 592.8 million taka. Later, it was increased to 627.6 million taka for the first phase – infrastructure construction. The initial period of the project stood until 2019, which was later extended to June 2023.
The proposed project had a car park, art gallery, and a sculpture of Bangabandhu surrounded by a reservoir in the basement of Bangabandhu Square on 1.42 acres of land. Further, a 6,332.71 square meter ground floor will comprise a permanent art gallery and museum with modern sound systems, lights, and digital screens. The first floor, with an area of 1,576.86 square meters, will have a modern restaurant, a beautiful landscape, open-air seating, and all kinds of arrangements for healthy entertainment.
According to RDA, a consulting firm designed the project costing 20 million taka in 2017. But during the work, the consulting firm changed the design and took another 14.4 million taka. This also includes foreign travel of officials, five lifts instead of three, air coolers of 262 tons from 42 tons, increased furniture, increased capacity of electric substation to 500 kV, increased costs for generators and firefighting management, etc. The project cost in various sectors after the revisions went up to 124.7 million taka. The ministry cancelled the second phase of the project when the Sheikh Hasina government was ousted in the mass uprising of students and the public on August 5. A building built with 62.76 million taka on a plot of 12.5 square meters of land now lies idle for six months.
In this regard, RDA Chairman (Joint Secretary) SM Tuhinur Alam said, a proposal has been sent from RDA to the concerned ministry for a name change of the newly constructed building. The previous plan has been withdrawn. Now, as a commercial building, cineplexes, cafeterias, conference rooms and banks or financial institutions can be rented through open tenders. It will also maintain a separate gallery of various rare photographs from the student movement that took place in Rajshahi during the July Uprising. An exchange of views has been held with the coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement in this regard. After that, all the next steps will be taken after getting the official permission from the ministry.
RDA Superintendent Engineer and Project Director Abdullah Al Tariq said, “In the changed situation, the building is being considered for renaming. We want to brand it as RDA Bhaban.”
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