Over 100 trees on a Rokeya Sarani pavement have been chopped down for construction of Agargaon-Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue link road, though design of the road does not entail felling of the trees.
Some of the trees were around 10 years old.
Just two days back, there were 255 trees on the sidewalk. Now only 152 trees stand between Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre and Agargaon intersection.
The authorities concerned chopped down the trees at night or dawn. On Friday, 59 bases of felled trees lay on the pavement. Then yesterday, they were joined by 44 more.
Interestingly, high value trees like mahogany and acacia were felled and young deodar trees, with immature wood, were left untouched.
The designers of the road at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) said felling of the trees was not at all necessary as per the design approved for the road through Old Airport.
“Tree felling was not in our plan. They do not need to cut down trees to build the road. Maybe they are doing this for some other reasons,” said Zubair Bin Alam, chief of the designing team.
While making the announcement of the link road, the authorities did not say a word about the need for trees to be felled.
It was observed that only five to six trees were required to be chopped down to connect the under-construction road to the road opposite the Election Commission.
An official of the Army Engineering Corps, the implementing body of the road, said they have got rid of the trees as those fell inside the road’s alignment.
“The road is a crying need for the city. We cut the trees for the sake of road construction and in the greater interest of the city dwellers,” he said, adding that they are scheduled to finish the construction work by the end of this year. He said they are hopeful of finishing the job ahead of time, before December.
According to the plan, the pavement on the eastern part of Rokeya Sarani will separate the new road and Rokeya Sarani.
The aim of the new road is to ease traffic congestion in the city. It begins from Agargaon and ends at the relief depot, which is across the street from the Chief Adviser’s Office.
Demarcation and digging work of the new road has already been done and the authorities are raising a wall along the runway of the Old Airport.
Once it is opened to public, traffic pressure on roads between Mohakhali and Farmgate will reduce, said LGRD ministry sources.
People of Mirpur, Shyamoli, Kalyanpur and Mohammadpur areas will be able to save at least 20 minutes using the new road to go to Mohakhali, Gulshan, Zia International Airport and Uttara.
At present, they have to use Bijoy Sarani which remains clogged during rush hours.
The 2.6-kilometre-long and 18.5-metre-wide road is being built with the help of the army and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) at a cost of Tk 24.92 crore.
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